Reservoirs
Below normalBlue Mesa Reservoir water level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Gunnison-Colorado basin, Colorado
Data through Sep 23, 2026 · source last checked Oct 1, 2026 · page revised Sep 24, 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
- Sep 23, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 144,461 af, 66% below the 5-yr median, 15% of capacity.
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%.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 144,461 af | 147,916 af | -2.3% |
| Month over month | 144,461 af | 192,051 af | -24.8% |
| Year over year | 144,461 af | 424,652 af | -66.0% |
| vs 5-yr median | 144,461 af | 424,652 af | -66.0% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Latest reading, Sep 23, 2026 | 7,413.37 ft above sea level |
| Change from a week earlier | -0.96 ft |
| Change from a year earlier | -55.61 ft |
| 5-yr median for the date | 7,468.98 ft |
| Below full pool | 106.03 ft |
| Five-year low | 7,413.37 ft (Sep 23, 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
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.
Week of Sep 2, 2026
Blue Mesa storage fell to 173,679 af, 62% below the 5-year median and at 18% of capacity. The lake dropped 7.5% over the week and 25% since month start. Year-over-year storage is down 62.1%.
Week of Aug 25, 2026
Blue Mesa storage stands at 189,745 af, down 59.9% year over year. The reservoir runs 60% below its 5-year median and holds 20% of capacity.
An earlier week
Blue Mesa Reservoir fell to 201,675 af this week, down 6% week over week and 58% below the 5-year median (Bureau of Reclamation). The reservoir sits on the Gunnison River in western Colorado and continues to draw down through the August irrigation window. The 6% weekly decline is the largest reservoir drop in the tracked set this week.
About Blue Mesa Reservoir
Blue Mesa Reservoir's water level is 7,413.37 feet above sea level as of Sep 23, 2026, 106.03 feet below full pool (7,519.4 feet), with 144,461 acre-feet in storage (15% of capacity). That is 0.96 feet lower than a week earlier and 55.61 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 144,461 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.