Reservoirs
Below normalMillerton Lake level
Live reservoir storage and water level in San Joaquin basin, California
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
- Millerton Lake level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Sep 23, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 230,194 af, 11% below the 5-yr median, 44% of capacity.
Millerton storage stands at 230,194 af, down 10.9% year over year. The lake is 11% below the 5-year median and fell 5.1% month over month, though it was up 0.6% week over week.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 230,194 af | 228,760 af | +0.6% |
| Month over month | 230,194 af | 242,541 af | -5.1% |
| Year over year | 230,194 af | 258,327 af | -10.9% |
| vs 5-yr median | 230,194 af | 258,327 af | -10.9% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Latest reading, Sep 23, 2026 | 504.85 ft above sea level |
| Change from a week earlier | +0.47 ft |
| Change from a year earlier | -8.88 ft |
| 5-yr median for the date | 513.73 ft |
| Below full pool | 73.15 ft |
| Five-year low | 469.95 ft (Nov 8, 2023) |
| Five-year high | 579.65 ft (Jul 19, 2023) |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 578 ft above sea level (conservation elevation) | USBR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 293 ft | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 4,810 acres | USBR |
| Total capacity | 520,500 acre-feet | CDEC |
Previous weeks
Week of Sep 14, 2026
Millerton storage fell to 231,114 af, down 10.7% over the month. The lake sits 11% below its 5-year median and holds 44% of capacity.
Week of Sep 2, 2026
Millerton storage fell to 238,174 af, down 14.1% from a month ago. The lake is 46% of capacity and 6% below the 5-year median.
Week of Aug 26, 2026
Millerton Lake storage fell to 239,518 af, down 3.4% from a week ago. The month-to-month decline of 21.4% has left the lake 5% below the 5-year median at 46% of capacity.
Week of Aug 19, 2026
Millerton Lake storage fell to 248,073 af, down 7.2% over the week and 5% below its 5-year median. Month-over-month storage declined 24.5% from early August. The reservoir is at 48% of capacity.
About Millerton Lake
Millerton Lake's water level is 504.85 feet above sea level as of Sep 23, 2026, 73.15 feet below full pool (578 feet), with 230,194 acre-feet in storage (44% of capacity). That is 0.47 feet higher than a week earlier and 8.88 feet lower than a year earlier.
Friant Dam forms Millerton Lake on the upper San Joaquin River and heads the CVP's Friant Division. Water leaves the dam through two canals, the Friant-Kern running south toward Bakersfield and the Madera Canal heading north, together supplying the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. The reservoir itself is fairly small at around 520,000 acre-feet.
Total capacity is 520,500 af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 138,280 af to 528,669 af.
Millerton Lake is one of the 21 major reservoirs this site totals each day, and one of several it tracks in the San Joaquin basin. 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 surface area from the Bureau of Reclamation; maximum depth from the Bureau of Reclamation; total capacity from the California Data Exchange Center.