Reservoirs
Below normalLake Mead water level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Colorado (Lower) basin, Nevada / Arizona
Data through Aug 12, 2026 · source last checked Aug 13, 2026 · page revised Aug 13, 2026
Cite
- Storage
About this data
- Source
- US Bureau of Reclamation RISE; California reservoirs via CA DWR CDEC
- Series
- End-of-day reservoir storage
- Geography
- Lake Mead water level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Aug 12, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 6.97M af, 19% below the 5-yr median, 27% of capacity.
Lake Mead storage fell to 6.99M af, down 0.7% on the week and 12.6% year-over-year. Current storage sits 18% below the 5-year median and stands at 27% of capacity.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 6.97M af | 7.02M af | -0.8% |
| Month over month | 6.97M af | 7.16M af | -2.7% |
| Year over year | 6.97M af | 8M af | -12.9% |
| vs 5-yr median | 6.97M af | 8.56M af | -18.6% |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 1,219.6 ft above sea level (top of joint use pool) | USBR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 576 ft | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 162,700 acres | USACE NID |
| Total capacity | 26,120,000 acre-feet | USBR |
About Lake Mead
Hoover Dam created Lake Mead on the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona line, the largest reservoir in the United States by capacity at nearly 29 million acre-feet when full. Reclamation operates it as the main bank of the Lower Colorado, delivering water to Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico while generating power at the dam. Sustained drought has kept live storage far below full pool.
Total capacity is 26.12M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 6.97M af to 9.73M 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.