Reservoirs
Above normalTrinity Lake level
Live reservoir storage and water level in Trinity-Klamath basin, California
Data through Oct 15, 2026 · source last checked Oct 17, 2026 · page revised Oct 16, 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
- Trinity Lake level
- Unit
- acre-feet
- Calculation
- Daily reading
- Last observation
- Oct 15, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 1.65M af, 33% above the 5-yr median, 68% of capacity.
Trinity Lake storage stands at 1.65M af, 33% above the 5-year median. Storage has declined 0.9% over the week, 4.0% this month and 6.2% from a year ago. The reservoir sits at 68% of capacity.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 1.65M af | 1.67M af | -0.9% |
| Month over month | 1.65M af | 1.72M af | -4.0% |
| Year over year | 1.65M af | 1.76M af | -6.2% |
| vs 5-yr median | 1.65M af | 1.25M af | +32.5% |
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Latest reading, Oct 15, 2026 | 2,315.6 ft above sea level |
| Change from a week earlier | -1.22 ft |
| Change from a year earlier | -8.33 ft |
| 5-yr median for the date | 2,280.83 ft |
| Below full pool | 54.4 ft |
| Five-year low | 2,188.49 ft (Dec 22, 2022) |
| Five-year high | 2,358.97 ft (Jun 7, 2025) |
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool elevation | 2,370 ft above sea level (top of active conservation pool) | USBR |
| Maximum depth at the dam | 440 ft | USBR |
| Surface area at full pool | 17,722 acres | USACE NID |
| Total capacity | 2,447,650 acre-feet | CDEC |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Trinity Lake storage stands at 1.66M af, down 1.0% on the week and 4.1% month over month. Year over year it is 6.3% lower. The lake sits 32% above the 5-year median, holding 68% of capacity.
Week of Oct 7, 2026
Trinity Lake storage stood at 1.67M af, 32% above the 5-year median and 68% of capacity. It fell 4.4% month-over-month and is down 6.9% year-over-year, with a weekly decline of 0.7%.
Week of Sep 23, 2026
Trinity Lake storage stands at 1.70M af, down 1.2% on the week and 5.4% on the month. The lake runs 32% above its 5-year median at 69% of capacity. Year over year, storage is down 8.2%.
Week of Sep 15, 2026
Trinity Lake stands at 1.72M af, 31% above the 5-year median. Storage fell 5.6% over the past month and 8.5% year-over-year. Week-over-week, storage fell 1.3%.
About Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake's water level is 2,315.6 feet above sea level as of Oct 15, 2026, 54.4 feet below full pool (2,370 feet), with 1.65 million acre-feet in storage (68% of capacity). That is 1.22 feet lower than a week earlier and 8.33 feet lower than a year earlier.
Trinity Dam blocks the Trinity River as the head of the CVP's Trinity River Division. Much of the inflow never continues down the Trinity: Reclamation diverts it through the Clear Creek Tunnel into Whiskeytown Lake and the Sacramento basin, generating power on the way. Federal law still lists the reservoir as Clair Engle Lake, though the state and most maps call it Trinity.
Total capacity is 2.45M af, over the past five years storage has ranged from 521,120 af to 2.27M af.
Trinity Lake 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 California Data Exchange Center.