Lake Hickory Water Level
Lake Hickory is at 932.30 ft today (Oct 6), 2.70 ft below its 935 ft full pool.
North Carolina · Catawba River
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Water level history
About Lake Hickory
Lake Hickory is a reservoir on the Catawba River in North Carolina, operated by Duke Energy. Its full summer pool sits at 935 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from Duke Energy and reflect the latest reported level.
Understanding Lake Hickory's water level
Lake Hickory is the third step down the Catawba River's staircase of Duke Energy reservoirs, sitting between Lake Rhodhiss upstream and Lookout Shoals Lake below. Oxford Dam, completed in 1927 at river mile 230 about eleven miles northeast of Hickory, is 122 feet high and 1,200 feet long with a 550 foot spillway section, and NC Highway 16 crosses the river right beside it. Behind it the lake covers about 4,223 acres with roughly 105 miles of shoreline across Catawba, Alexander, Caldwell and Burke counties. Duke reports the level on a local scale where full pond equals 100.0 feet, and at Lake Hickory that mark is 935.0 feet above sea level, so a reading of 98.5 means the water is a foot and a half down, near 933.5. With a mean hydraulic retention time of only about 33 days, water moves through quickly, so the level depends heavily on what Rhodhiss sends down and what Oxford's two generating units and floodgates pass along.
The lake is also a drinking water reservoir, and that is what sets its floor. The City of Hickory's regional treatment plant, rated at 32 million gallons a day, pulls raw water from the Catawba between Rhodhiss and Oxford dams, and the lake also supplies Conover and Long View. Under the Low Inflow Protocol written into the Catawba Wateree relicensing agreement, Lake Hickory's Critical Reservoir Elevation is 94.0 feet on Duke's scale, about 929 feet above sea level, the point below which the municipal intake cannot run at its approved capacity. As drought stages escalate, Duke lowers each lake's normal minimum by roughly a foot per stage, never below that critical line, while water systems move from voluntary cutbacks to mandatory limits. The protocol sits inside the 40 year license FERC issued effective November 1, 2015. In 2015 the basin reached Stage 0 on July 1 and Stage 1 on July 20, and on May 1, 2026 Hickory announced the basin had moved into Stage 2, the most comparable drought since 2007 and 2008.
High water on Lake Hickory is usually a story about the gates rather than the lake. The worst Catawba flood on record, in July 1916, came eleven years before Oxford Dam existed and helped push the wave of dam building that created the lake. The National Weather Service's historic crest at the Oxford gauge is 104.7 feet on Duke's scale, about 939.7 feet, on August 30, 1940. During Helene, Duke opened multiple floodgates and the gauge peaked at just 100.1 feet on September 28, 2024, with 107,200 cubic feet per second leaving the dam. The lake held nearly steady, but the water it passed flooded homes on Lookout Shoals Lake, which crested 9.45 feet above full pool, and NCDOT closed the Highway 16 bridge until it could be inspected. For anglers, the lake draws heavy pressure: a Duke creel survey in 1997 and 1998 logged 176 angler hours per hectare, well above Lake James, and largemouth bass took 45 percent of the effort.
Lake Hickory — frequently asked
What is Lake Hickory's full pond level?
Full pond is 935.0 feet above mean sea level, which Duke Energy reports as 100.0 feet on its local scale. The NWS gauge at Oxford Dam uses the same scale with a gauge datum of 835 feet, so any reading can be converted by adding 835. A reading of 97.0, for example, is 932 feet, three feet below full. The National Weather Service sets action stage at 100.5 feet and minor flood stage at 101 feet.
What is the highest Lake Hickory has ever been?
The highest crest in the National Weather Service record for the Oxford Dam gauge is 104.7 feet on Duke's scale, roughly 939.7 feet above sea level, on August 30, 1940, when late summer storms dropped more than eight inches of rain in a day on the Alexander County area. The next highest listed crest is 101.7 feet on May 6, 2013. Moderate flood stage at the gauge is 105 feet.
What happened to Lake Hickory during Hurricane Helene?
Very little on the lake itself. Duke opened multiple floodgates at Oxford Dam to hold the level, and the gauge crested at 100.1 feet, barely a tenth over full pond, on September 28, 2024, while releasing about 107,200 cubic feet per second. The flooding went downstream instead: Lookout Shoals Lake rose 9.45 feet above full pool, forcing evacuations around Carpenters Cove, and the Highway 16 bridge at the dam was closed until NCDOT inspected it.
Why is Lake Hickory low?
Usually drought or dam work. Under the Low Inflow Protocol, each drought stage lets Duke drop the lake's normal minimum further, though never below the 94.0 foot critical elevation that protects Hickory's water intake. In May 2026 the Catawba Wateree basin entered Stage 2, bringing mandatory watering limits. Maintenance can do it too: in April 2018 Duke lowered the lake a few feet for work at Oxford Dam, leaving some boats high and dry and some coves empty until it refilled.
How low can Lake Hickory go?
The relicensing agreement defines Lake Hickory's Critical Reservoir Elevation as 94.0 feet on Duke's local scale, about 929 feet above sea level, six feet below full pond. Below that, the municipal water intake on the lake cannot operate at its approved capacity. In the most severe drought stage of the Low Inflow Protocol, Duke may lower the reservoirs' minimum levels down to those critical elevations, so 94.0 is effectively the planned floor.
Who gets drinking water from Lake Hickory?
The City of Hickory's water treatment plant draws from the Catawba in the pool behind Oxford Dam, with Rhodhiss Dam upstream. It is rated at 32 million gallons a day and serves as a regional supplier, delivering water across parts of three counties and to towns including Maiden and Long View. Conover also relies on the lake, which is why a municipal intake elevation sets the reservoir's drought floor.
What kind of bass are in Lake Hickory?
Largemouth bass are the main target and the population is healthy, with state electrofishing catches of 73 to 96 fish per hour between 2008 and 2018. Anglers began reporting spotted bass in 2006 and biologists confirmed them in 2008, but genetic tests in 2022 showed they are actually Alabama bass, an unauthorized introduction. Their numbers climbed quickly after 2012, though most are under about 12 inches and they had not yet measurably hurt the largemouth.
Other lakes near Lake Hickory
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