Lake Altus-Lugert Water Level
Lake Altus-Lugert is at 1,539.31 ft today (Oct 19), 19.69 ft below its 1,559 ft full pool, up 3.43 ft this week.
Oklahoma · North Fork Red River
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Water level history
About Lake Altus-Lugert
Lake Altus-Lugert is a reservoir on the North Fork Red River in Oklahoma, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It sits in the Quartz Mountains of southwest Oklahoma. Its full summer pool sits at 1559 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Lake Altus-Lugert's water level
Lake Altus-Lugert sits where the North Fork of the Red River cuts through the Quartz Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, backed up behind Altus Dam near the town of Lugert. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built the dam as the centerpiece of the W.C. Austin Project, and the lake's level is really a farming schedule: the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District draws down the conservation pool through the growing season to water about 48,000 acres of cotton, alfalfa, and other crops on the plains below, then waits on winter and spring runoff to build storage back up. The city of Altus also draws its municipal and industrial water from the same pool, with the last 10,000 acre-feet of conservation storage set aside for that purpose. Because the North Fork's flow depends almost entirely on rain across a drainage basin covering 2,116 square miles, and that basin can run dry for years at a stretch, Altus-Lugert swings harder between full and nearly empty than most Oklahoma reservoirs, and its level has become something of a public barometer for how the surrounding farm country is doing.
The lake predates the current dam. In 1927 the city of Altus built an Ambursen buttress dam here, 46 feet high, for its own water supply, but the small reservoir behind it silted in fast: within seventeen years its capacity had fallen from about 13,000 acre-feet to 700, and crews tore it down. The Bureau of Reclamation broke ground on the replacement in April 1941, paused through World War II, resumed in May 1944, finished the spillway crest in the summer of 1945, delivered first irrigation water in June 1946, and dedicated the finished project in September 1947. The dam is a concrete gravity structure 110 feet high and 1,104 feet long, with nine radial gates on the spillway. Lugert itself was already fading: an April 1912 tornado destroyed all but one of its business buildings and killed three people, and the town never recovered before the reservoir covered its original site. Today's Lugert sits on higher ground along State Highway 44, next to Quartz Mountain State Park, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1936 and 1940 and later home to an arts and conference center that opened in 2001.
Managers and biologists who work the lake describe dry and wet cycles going back to the 1890s, but 2011 through 2015 was the worst run on record. By the end of April 2013 the lake held just 16.7 percent of capacity, and a golden algae bloom that winter killed roughly 350,000 fish, leaving biologists calling it dead as a fishery; the state canceled that year's trout stocking. A second bloom hit in the summer of 2014, and by October 1 of that year the lake was down to about 10 percent full, too low for the irrigation district to deliver water for a cotton crop. Heavy spring rains in 2015 broke the drought and forced the gates back open. The lake climbed high enough in May 2019 that homes and a boat rental business along River Road flooded. Drought returned hard enough that by 2023 the irrigation district won a 25 million dollar federal grant to line its leakiest canals rather than rely on the reservoir alone. Fish stocked after 2014, especially walleye, rebounded quickly, and the lake still holds Oklahoma's record hybrid striped bass caught on rod and line, 23 pounds 3.68 ounces, landed in 1997.
Lake Altus-Lugert — frequently asked
What is Lake Altus-Lugert's full pool elevation?
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Tulsa District, which publishes the lake's daily operating data, lists the top of the conservation pool at 1,559 feet, with the flood control pool three feet higher at 1,562 feet. Irrigation draws the lake down every growing season, so readings well below that mark are normal.
Why does Lake Altus-Lugert get so low?
Its water comes almost entirely from rain and snowmelt across a drainage basin of 2,116 square miles that can go years without much runoff, while the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District draws down the conservation pool every growing season to water around 48,000 acres of farmland. When drought and irrigation demand overlap, as they did from 2011 through 2015 and again in the early 2020s, storage can fall to a small fraction of capacity.
When did the lake recover from its worst drought?
It bottomed out at about 10 percent full on October 1, 2014, too little to deliver irrigation water for that year's cotton crop. Heavy rains in the spring of 2015, reported at more than 17 inches over 60 days, broke the drought and forced operators to reopen the dam's gates. A second, less severe drought returned by the early 2020s, prompting the irrigation district to seek federal funding for canal repairs in 2023.
What caused the fish kills in 2013 and 2014?
Golden algae, a species that spread into Oklahoma from Texas in the 2000s, bloomed in the lake over the winter of 2012 into 2013 and killed an estimated 350,000 fish, then bloomed again in the summer of 2014. The toxin only harms animals that breathe through gills and tends to bloom in cooler water with higher salt content, conditions drought concentrates. Restocking with walleye, catfish, crappie, and shad brought the fishery back by 2017.
Is the gauge's listed record high and low the all-time record for this lake?
Not quite. This feed lists a recent high of 1,554.08 feet in 2025 and a low of 1,531.58 feet in 2021, but the Corps' own operating log recorded the pool at 1,559.20 feet on June 29, 2019, above the feed's 2025 high, when flood gates were open and homes near the lake were flooding. The true historic low, from the 2011 to 2015 drought when the lake was reported at only about 10 percent full, was likely lower still, though no exact figure for that point could be confirmed.
What is the Lugert-Altus Irrigation District and how does it use the lake?
It is the district created in 1940 to run the W.C. Austin Project's irrigation system, which delivers water through 52 miles of main canals and 221 miles of laterals to farmland in the area. The district's growing season draws from the lake's conservation pool are the biggest driver of its seasonal drawdown. In 2023 it received a 25 million dollar federal grant to line the canal segments losing the most water to seepage.
Has Lake Altus-Lugert produced any state fishing records?
Yes. Oklahoma's record hybrid striped bass caught on rod and line, 23 pounds 3.68 ounces, came out of Altus-Lugert Reservoir on April 4, 1997, landed by angler Paul Hollister. It is not the record water for walleye, despite some online claims; that record came from Robert S. Kerr Reservoir in 2004. Altus-Lugert's walleye did rebound strongly after the 2013 to 2014 fish kills, reaching 18 inches within two growing seasons by 2017.
Flow released below Lake Altus-Lugert
This gauge reads the water leaving the dam, which is the number to check for fishing, paddling and downstream conditions. Live flow is tracked on riverlvl.com.
Other lakes near Lake Altus-Lugert
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