Reservoirs

Below normal

Lake Havasu water level

Live reservoir storage and water level in Colorado (Lower) basin, Arizona / California

Data through Aug 12, 2026 · source last checked Aug 13, 2026 · page revised Aug 13, 2026

Cite
acre-feet
Embed chart
Free to republish with attribution. The chart updates automatically as new data lands.
About this data
Source
US Bureau of Reclamation RISE; California reservoirs via CA DWR CDEC
Series
End-of-day reservoir storage
Geography
Lake Havasu water level
Unit
acre-feet
Calculation
Daily reading
Last observation
Aug 12, 2026
Update frequency
Daily

Now 523,653 af, 11% below the 5-yr median, 85% of capacity.

Lake Havasu storage stands at 536,364 af, 7% below the 5-year median. Storage rose 0.7% on the week, but is down 1.3% month-over-month and 6.4% year-over-year.

The numbers
PeriodCurrentPriorChange
Week over week523,653 af534,929 af-2.1%
Month over month523,653 af532,468 af-1.7%
Year over year523,653 af572,629 af-8.6%
vs 5-yr median523,653 af588,963 af-11.1%
Reservoir facts
MeasureValueSource
Full pool elevation450 ft above sea level (maximum water surface elevation)USBR
Maximum depth at the dam80 ftUSBR
Surface area at full pool20,390 acresUSACE NID
Total capacity619,400 acre-feetUSBR

About Lake Havasu

Parker Dam impounds Lake Havasu on the lower Colorado, the forebay for two of the Southwest's largest diversions: Metropolitan Water District's Colorado River Aqueduct to coastal Southern California and the Central Arizona Project pumping toward Phoenix and Tucson. Roughly three-quarters of Parker Dam's height sits below the original riverbed, which is why it is often called the deepest dam in the world.

Total capacity is 619,400 af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 498,457 af to 605,080 af.

Those figures describe the reservoir at full pool, not today. The chart at the top of this page tracks storage in acre-feet rather than water depth, so read the current figure against total capacity for how full the reservoir is, and against the full pool elevation and maximum depth for the size of the water column behind the dam. The two do not move together one for one: a reservoir narrows as it deepens, so one holding half its capacity still stands more than half as deep.

Sources: full pool elevation and maximum depth from the Bureau of Reclamation; surface area from the Army Corps' National Inventory of Dams; total capacity from the Bureau of Reclamation.