Reservoirs

Below normal

Navajo Reservoir water level

Live reservoir storage and water level in San Juan-Colorado basin, New Mexico / Colorado

Data through Aug 25, 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
Navajo Reservoir water level
Unit
acre-feet
Calculation
Daily reading
Last observation
Aug 25, 2026
Update frequency
Daily

Now 822,606 af, 20% below the 5-yr median, 49% of capacity.

Navajo Reservoir storage fell to 822,606 af, down 8.9% on the month and 10.5% on the year. The reservoir sits 20% below its 5-year median and is at 49% of capacity.

The numbers
PeriodCurrentPriorChange
Week over week822,606 af843,115 af-2.4%
Month over month822,606 af902,597 af-8.9%
Year over year822,606 af919,011 af-10.5%
vs 5-yr median822,606 af1.02M af-19.7%
Reservoir facts
MeasureValueSource
Full pool elevation6,085 ft above sea level (spillway elevation)USBR
Maximum depth at the dam381.6 ftUSBR
Surface area at full pool15,600 acresUSBR
Total capacity1,696,000 acre-feetUSBR

Previous weeks

Week of Aug 19, 2026

Navajo Reservoir held 839,895 af on August 19, down 8.2% from a month earlier. Storage sits 19% below the 5-year median and represents 50% of capacity. Year over year, the reservoir has declined 10.2%.

An earlier week

Navajo storage stood at 861,191 af on August 12, down 7.7% month over month and 9.6% year over year. The reservoir sits 18% below its 5-year median and 51% of capacity.

Week of Aug 13, 2026

Navajo storage was 869,867 af, down 9.5% year over year and 18% below the 5-year median. The reservoir sits at 51% of capacity. Storage declined 7.6% over the past month.

About Navajo Reservoir

Navajo Dam impounds the San Juan River and backs water about 35 miles upstream into southern Colorado, one of the four main storage units of the Colorado River Storage Project. Reclamation operates it for irrigation, municipal and industrial supply, drought reserve, and flood control. Cold releases below the dam feed a well-known tailwater trout fishery.

Total capacity is 1.70M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 822,606 af to 1.34M af.

Navajo Reservoir is one of the 20 major reservoirs this site totals each day, and one of several it tracks in the San Juan-Colorado 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 surface area from the Bureau of Reclamation; maximum depth from the Bureau of Reclamation; total capacity from the Bureau of Reclamation.