Reservoirs
Near normalHungry Horse Reservoir water level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Flathead-Columbia basin, Montana
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
- Hungry Horse Reservoir water level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Sep 23, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 3.15M af, 2% below the 5-yr median, 91% of capacity.
Hungry Horse storage stands at 3.15M af, down 3.7% from a month ago. The reservoir is running 2% below its 5-year median and holds 91% of capacity.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 3.15M af | 3.17M af | -0.9% |
| Month over month | 3.15M af | 3.26M af | -3.7% |
| Year over year | 3.15M af | 3.19M af | -1.5% |
| vs 5-yr median | 3.15M af | 3.19M af | -1.5% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Latest reading, Sep 23, 2026 | 3,546.05 ft above sea level |
| Change from a week earlier | -1.28 ft |
| Change from a year earlier | -2.18 ft |
| 5-yr median for the date | 3,548.23 ft |
| Below full pool | 13.95 ft |
| Five-year low | 3,509.01 ft (Mar 23, 2025) |
| Five-year high | 3,559.81 ft (Jun 24, 2026) |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 3,560 ft above sea level | USBR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 520 ft | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 24,100 acres | USACE NID |
| Total capacity | 3,467,179 acre-feet | USBR |
Previous weeks
Week of Sep 15, 2026
Hungry Horse storage stood at 3.18M af, down 3.8% from the prior month. The reservoir is 2% below its 5-year median and sits at 92% of capacity.
Week of Sep 2, 2026
Hungry Horse storage fell to 3.22M af, down 1.0% on the week and 4.4% on the month. The reservoir sits 2% below its 5-year median at 93% of capacity.
Week of Aug 26, 2026
Hungry Horse storage fell to 3.26M af, down 4.3% on the month. The reservoir is 1% below the 5-year median and at 94% of capacity.
Week of Aug 19, 2026
Hungry Horse storage fell to 3.29M af, down 4.1% over the month. The reservoir is 1% below the 5-year median and stands at 95% of capacity.
About Hungry Horse Reservoir
Hungry Horse Reservoir's water level is 3,546.05 feet above sea level as of Sep 23, 2026, 13.95 feet below full pool (3,560 feet), with 3.15 million acre-feet in storage (91% of capacity). That is 1.28 feet lower than a week earlier and 2.18 feet lower than a year earlier.
Hungry Horse Dam holds back the South Fork of the Flathead River in northwest Montana, a Reclamation project wired into the Columbia River power system. The arch dam rises 564 feet, among the tallest in the country, behind a reservoir near 3.5 million acre-feet. Reclamation runs it mainly for hydropower and flood control, coordinated with the wider Columbia network.
Total capacity is 3.47M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 2.39M af to 3.46M af.
Hungry Horse 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 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.