Lake Isabella Water Level
Lake Isabella is at 2,554.90 ft today (Oct 31), 50.60 ft below its 2,605.5 ft full pool, down 0.15 ft this week.
California · Kern River
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Water level history
About Lake Isabella
Lake Isabella is a reservoir on the Kern River in California, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its full summer pool sits at 2605.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Lake Isabella's water level
Isabella is a flood control reservoir first and a storage tank for Kern River irrigators second, and its level follows that order. Two earthen dams, the main dam across the Kern River and an auxiliary dam across Hot Springs Valley, were finished in 1953 about 40 miles northeast of Bakersfield. Under the Corps of Engineers water control manual, written in the 1950s, the lake must be drawn down to 170,000 acre-feet by November 1 and kept at or below that through January 31 to leave room for winter storms. In dry years the Corps has granted waivers letting up to 245,000 acre-feet stay in the lake, and irrigators have asked for a larger carryover in the manual rewrite. The rest of the year the level answers to snowmelt and to the Kern River Watermaster, who divides the river's daily flow at First Point, just west of Hart Park, among rights holders that include the City of Bakersfield, North Kern Water Storage District, Kern Delta Water District and Buena Vista. More than 300,000 people live or work below the dams, mostly in the town of Lake Isabella and in Bakersfield.
For sixteen years the lake was not allowed to fill. In April 2006 seepage turned up at the auxiliary dam, and a Corps study that year found three ways the dams could fail: overtopping, seepage and earthquake damage. Trenching later showed that the Kern Canyon fault, mapped under the west end of the auxiliary dam, has been active within the past 3,500 years and has produced at least six ruptures in the past 35,000. The Corps gave Isabella its riskiest dam safety rating and capped the pool at 2,585.5 feet, twenty feet below gross pool, which holds about 361,000 acre-feet against a design capacity of 568,000. Construction on the fix began in 2017. Both dams were raised 16 feet, filters and drains were added, and a new emergency spillway was cut with a labyrinth weir whose 28-foot walls zigzag through twelve cycles to fit roughly 3,100 feet of weir into a channel 1,200 feet wide. The work was substantially complete in late 2022, and in July 2023 the Corps moved the dam from DSAC 1 to DSAC 4, ending the cap.
The recent record shows how far the level can swing. In 2022, with the cap still in force, the lake bottomed at 2,525.67 feet, and in mid December it held about 42,500 acre-feet, roughly 7 percent of capacity. Then came the 2023 snowpack, reported at 422 percent of normal, with an estimated 1.8 million acre-feet of water in the watershed, enough to fill the lake more than three times. In late April the Corps took direct control of releases away from the hydropower plant at the foot of the main dam and ramped outflow to about 6,200 cubic feet per second, and Kern water went through the intertie into the California Aqueduct for the first time since 2006. By July 20 the lake held 543,255 acre-feet, and it peaked at 2,603.95 feet, less than two feet below gross pool. That rise covered old Kernville again. The gold rush town, called Whiskey Flat until it took the Kernville name in 1864, sat at about 2,575 feet near present Wofford Heights and was mostly dismantled or moved before the reservoir flooded it. Its foundations show when the lake drops.
Lake Isabella — frequently asked
What is Lake Isabella's full pool elevation?
2,605.5 feet, which the Corps lists as both top of gross pool and top of flood space, holding about 568,100 acre-feet. Elevations are on the NGVD29 datum. Above that is surcharge space up to 2,627 feet, about 840,600 acre-feet, and the top of the raised dam sits at 2,633.5 feet. The old riverbed at the dam is 2,448.5 feet, so a full lake is about 157 feet deep there.
Why is Lake Isabella so low in the fall?
Because the operating rules require it. The Corps water control manual calls for the lake to be drawn down to 170,000 acre-feet by November 1 and held at or below that through January 31, leaving room to catch winter storms above Bakersfield. In dry years the Corps has granted waivers to carry up to 245,000 acre-feet. Summer irrigation releases to Kern River rights holders do most of the drawing down before that deadline.
Why was Lake Isabella kept partly empty from 2006 to 2022?
Seepage at the auxiliary dam in 2006, plus overtopping risk and the active Kern Canyon fault beneath the auxiliary dam, put Isabella at the top of the Corps dam safety risk list. The pool was capped at 2,585.5 feet, about 361,000 acre-feet, about a third short of the 568,000 acre-foot design capacity. After both dams were raised 16 feet and a new emergency spillway was built, the Corps lowered the rating in July 2023 and the cap was lifted.
Did Lake Isabella fill in 2023?
Nearly. Snowpack in the Kern basin hit 422 percent of normal, and the Corps sought a deviation to fill past the old cap so engineers could watch the newly finished dams under load. The lake held 543,255 acre-feet on July 20 and topped out at 2,603.95 feet, less than two feet below gross pool. Irrigators had asked the Corps to trim releases to 3,800 cubic feet per second so the lake could reach the brim.
What is the lowest Lake Isabella has been?
In the gauge record kept on this site since about 2020, the low is 2,525.67 feet in 2022, when the lake held around 42,500 acre-feet in December, about 7 percent of capacity. In July 2013 the watermaster called the lake critical at about 13 percent and said it probably had not been that low since 1977. About 30,000 acre-feet is treated as the minimum recreation pool.
Is the old town of Kernville under Lake Isabella?
Yes. The original Kernville, a gold rush town founded in 1858 and known as Whiskey Flat in the 1860s, sat at about 2,575 feet near what is now Wofford Heights. Most buildings were torn down or hauled to higher ground before the reservoir covered the site in 1954, and the 2023 fill submerged it again. When the lake falls well below that elevation, foundations from the old townsite come back into view.
How many people have drowned in the Kern River?
The warning signs on Highway 178 at the mouth of the Kern River canyon read 348 deaths since 1968 after the Kern County Sheriff's Office update in May 2026, which added six from the past year. The count does not include the upper river in Tulare County or people still missing. The worst single year on record was 2017, with 16 drownings.
Other lakes near Lake Isabella
- Lake KaweahCA
- Indian Valley ReservoirCA
- Los Banos ReservoirCA
- Hensley LakeCA
- Lake McClureCA
- Lake HavasuAZ/CA
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
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