Reservoirs

Near normal

New Don Pedro Reservoir water level

Live reservoir storage and water level in Tuolumne-San Joaquin basin, California

Data through Sep 8, 2026 · source last checked Sep 10, 2026 · page revised Sep 10, 2026

Cite
acre-feet
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About this data
Source
US Bureau of Reclamation RISE; California reservoirs via CA DWR CDEC
Series
End-of-day reservoir storage
Geography
New Don Pedro Reservoir water level
Unit
acre-feet
Calculation
Daily reading
Last observation
Sep 8, 2026
Update frequency
Daily

Now 1.59M af, 0% below the 5-yr median, 78% of capacity.

The numbers
PeriodCurrentPriorChange
Week over week1.59M af1.61M af-1.1%
Month over month1.59M af1.68M af-5.5%
Year over year1.59M af1.62M af-1.9%
vs 5-yr median1.59M af1.59M af-0.3%
Reservoir facts
MeasureValueSource
Full pool elevation830 ft above sea levelTID
Maximum depth at the dam560 ftUSACE NID
Surface area at full pool12,960 acresTID
Total capacity2,030,000 acre-feetCDEC

Previous weeks

Week of Aug 25, 2026

New Don Pedro storage dropped to 1.63M af, down 6.6% over the month and 1% below the 5-year median, sitting at 80% of capacity. Week-over-week, the reservoir shed 1.4%.

Week of Aug 18, 2026

New Don Pedro storage fell to 1.65M af, down 7.3% over the past month, and sits 1% below its 5-year median. The reservoir holds 81% of capacity, down 2.2% from a year ago.

An earlier week

New Don Pedro fell to 1.67M af, down 7.6% over the month as summer drawdown continues. Storage is 1% below the 5-year median and running at 82% of capacity.

Week of Aug 13, 2026

New Don Pedro storage fell to 1.68M af, down 7.6% since early July. The reservoir sits 1% below its 5-year median and holds 83% of capacity.

About New Don Pedro Reservoir

New Don Pedro Dam backs up the Tuolumne River in the Sierra foothills, owned and operated by the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts rather than a federal agency. At roughly two million acre-feet it counts among California's larger reservoirs, run for irrigation, hydropower, and flood control. The districts coordinate its winter flood space with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Total capacity is 2.03M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 968,734 af to 1.97M af.

New Don Pedro Reservoir is one of the 20 major reservoirs this site totals each day, and one of several it tracks in the Tuolumne-San Joaquin 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 Turlock Irrigation District; maximum depth from the Army Corps' National Inventory of Dams; total capacity from the California Data Exchange Center.