Reservoirs

Below normal

Boysen Reservoir water level

Live reservoir storage and water level in Wind-Bighorn-Missouri basin, Wyoming

Data through Aug 26, 2026 · source last checked Aug 27, 2026 · page revised Aug 27, 2026

Cite
acre-feet
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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
Boysen Reservoir water level
Unit
acre-feet
Calculation
Daily reading
Last observation
Aug 26, 2026
Update frequency
Daily

Now 505,259 af, 24% below the 5-yr median, 68% of capacity.

Boysen storage fell to 505,259 af, down 1.5% on the week and 5.5% over the month. The reservoir sits 24% below its 5-year median at 68% of capacity.

The numbers
PeriodCurrentPriorChange
Week over week505,259 af512,779 af-1.5%
Month over month505,259 af534,527 af-5.5%
Year over year505,259 af553,938 af-8.8%
vs 5-yr median505,259 af666,064 af-24.1%
Reservoir facts
MeasureValueSource
Full pool elevation4,717 ft above sea level (top of active conservation pool)USBR
Maximum depth at the dam117 ftUSBR
Surface area at full pool19,560 acresUSACE NID
Total capacity741,594 acre-feetUSBR

Previous weeks

Week of Aug 19, 2026

Boysen storage is 512,779 af, down 4.7% on the month and 9.0% year-over-year. The reservoir sits 24% below its 5-year median.

An earlier week

Boysen storage fell to 519,514 af, down 4.7% over the month and 9.3% year over year. The reservoir sits 24% below its 5-year median, at 70% of capacity.

Week of Aug 13, 2026

Storage at Boysen fell to 522,695 af, down 4.7% on the month and 9.3% year-over-year. The reservoir sits 23% below the 5-year median.

About Boysen Reservoir

Boysen Dam holds the Wind River at the upstream mouth of Wind River Canyon, a Pick-Sloan unit above Thermopolis in central Wyoming. Reclamation operates it for irrigation, flood control, power, and sediment retention. Below the canyon the same river changes names, becoming the Bighorn.

Total capacity is 741,594 af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 498,247 af to 810,589 af.

Boysen Reservoir is one of the 20 major reservoirs this site totals each day, and one of several it tracks in the Wind-Bighorn-Missouri basin. For the combined picture, western reservoir levels carries the storage of all 20 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 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.