Reservoirs
Below normalBlue Mesa Reservoir water level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Gunnison-Colorado basin, Colorado
Data through Oct 15, 2026 · source last checked Oct 17, 2026 · page revised Oct 16, 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
- Blue Mesa Reservoir water level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Oct 15, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 139,818 af, 64% below the 5-yr median, 15% of capacity.
Blue Mesa storage fell to 139,818 af, down 64.5% from a year ago. The reservoir is 64% below its 5-year median and holds 15% of capacity. Storage declined 5.9% in the past month and 1.9% on the week.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 139,818 af | 142,467 af | -1.9% |
| Month over month | 139,818 af | 148,569 af | -5.9% |
| Year over year | 139,818 af | 393,601 af | -64.5% |
| vs 5-yr median | 139,818 af | 393,601 af | -64.5% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Latest reading, Oct 15, 2026 | 7,412.06 ft above sea level |
| Change from a week earlier | -0.75 ft |
| Change from a year earlier | -52.17 ft |
| 5-yr median for the date | 7,464.23 ft |
| Below full pool | 107.34 ft |
| Five-year low | 7,412.06 ft (Oct 15, 2026) |
| Five-year high | 7,512.47 ft (Jun 25, 2023) |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 7,519.4 ft above sea level (top of joint use pool) | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 9,219 acres | USBR |
| Total capacity | 940,700 acre-feet | USBR |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Blue Mesa Reservoir holds 140,029 af, down 64.5% from a year ago when it contained 394,368 af. The reservoir sits 64% below the 5-yr median at 15% of capacity. Week over week storage dropped 2.1%, and month over month 6.1%.
Week of Oct 7, 2026
Blue Mesa storage stands at 142,964 af, down 12.8% on the month and 64.7% year over year. The reservoir sits 65% below the 5-year median and holds 15% of capacity.
Week of Sep 23, 2026
Blue Mesa storage stands at 144,461 af, 15% of capacity. The reservoir is 66% below the 5-year median. Year-over-year storage dropped 66% from 424,652 af. On the month, storage is down 24.8%.
Week of Sep 15, 2026
Blue Mesa storage stands at 148,569 af, 66% below the 5-year median and at just 16% of capacity. The reservoir dropped 8.2% over the week and has fallen 65.9% since last September, tracking exceptional depletion in the Gunnison-Colorado basin.
About Blue Mesa Reservoir
Blue Mesa Reservoir's water level is 7,412.06 feet above sea level as of Oct 15, 2026, 107.34 feet below full pool (7,519.4 feet), with 139,818 acre-feet in storage (15% of capacity). That is 0.75 feet lower than a week earlier and 52.17 feet lower than a year earlier, and the lowest reading in five years.
Blue Mesa Dam forms the largest lake wholly within Colorado, impounding the Gunnison River as part of the Colorado River Storage Project's Wayne N. Aspinall Unit. Reclamation runs it for storage and hydropower, and the National Park Service manages the shoreline inside Curecanti National Recreation Area. It holds the state's largest lake-trout and Kokanee salmon fishery.
Total capacity is 940,700 af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 139,818 af to 765,190 af.
Blue Mesa Reservoir is one of the 21 major reservoirs this site totals each day. For the combined picture, western reservoir levels carries the storage of all 21 on one chart, which is the number to watch when the question is about the West as a whole rather than about this project.
Those figures describe the reservoir at full pool, not today. The chart at the top of this page tracks storage in acre-feet and the elevation table tracks the water surface in feet, so read storage against total capacity for how full the reservoir is, and the elevation against the full pool elevation for how far the surface sits below a full reservoir. 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 surface area from the Bureau of Reclamation; total capacity from the Bureau of Reclamation.