Reservoirs
Below normalLake Oroville water level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Feather-Sacramento basin, California
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 Oroville water level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Aug 12, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 2.29M af, 11% below the 5-yr median, 67% of capacity.
Lake Oroville storage fell to 2.34M af, down 5.4% on the week. The decline accelerates over longer horizons: down 18.9% on the month and 10% below the 5-year median, with the lake at 68% of capacity.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 2.29M af | 2.42M af | -5.3% |
| Month over month | 2.29M af | 2.83M af | -19.2% |
| Year over year | 2.29M af | 2.56M af | -10.7% |
| vs 5-yr median | 2.29M af | 2.56M af | -10.7% |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 900 ft above sea level (full pool) | CA DWR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 748 ft | USACE NID |
| Surface area at full pool | 15,800 acres | USACE NID |
| Total capacity | 3,424,753 acre-feet | CDEC |
About Lake Oroville
Oroville Dam holds back the Feather River as the headwaters storage of California's State Water Project, operated by the Department of Water Resources rather than a federal agency. At 770 feet it is the tallest dam in the United States, behind the state's second-largest reservoir at more than 3.5 million acre-feet. DWR runs it for supply, hydropower, and winter flood control.
Total capacity is 3.42M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 787,578 af to 3.54M 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 from the California Department of Water Resources; maximum depth and surface area from the Army Corps' National Inventory of Dams; total capacity from the California Data Exchange Center.