New Melones Lake Water Level
New Melones Lake is at 1,005.94 ft today (Oct 5), 82.06 ft below its 1,088 ft full pool, down 0.93 ft this week.
California · Stanislaus River
Sponsor New Melones Lake
Put your marina, real-estate, or local business in front of everyone checking this lake's level. One exclusive sponsor per lake.
Cancel anytime · Questions?
Water level history
About New Melones Lake
New Melones Lake is a reservoir on the Stanislaus River in California, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 1088 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from California's Department of Water Resources (CDEC) and update daily.
Understanding New Melones Lake's water level
New Melones is a reservoir built bigger than its river, and that one fact explains most of what its gauge does. The lake holds 2.4 million acre-feet at 1,088 feet, the crest of its ungated spillway, which makes it the fourth largest reservoir in California, yet it drains only about 904 square miles of the Stanislaus watershed. Critics in the early 1960s warned that a reservoir more than twice the size of the river's annual flow might never fill. Reclamation expected 335,000 acre-feet of new yield each year; actual yield has been closer to 200,000. On paper the project was committed to 1,067,000 acre-feet: 600,000 for the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts, which hold the oldest rights on the river, 422,000 for fishery and water quality flows, and 45,000 for Stockton East Water District. So the lake drains for years in a drought and waits for a very wet winter to come back. The normal seasonal swing is small by comparison. Averaged over 1991 to 2020, storage runs from about 1.29 million acre-feet in October to about 1.51 million in June.
The Oakdale and South San Joaquin districts dammed this canyon first, finishing the 211 foot old Melones Dam in 1926 with 112,500 acre-feet of storage. Congress authorized a bigger dam in 1944 and expanded its purposes in 1962, and the Army Corps of Engineers began work in 1966. The diversion gates closed on April 1, 1978, and the rising water drowned the old dam and the gold rush settlement of Melones, which grew up around a Stanislaus River ferry started in 1848. What followed was the Stanislaus fight. Friends of the River formed to save the whitewater canyon above the dam, and its Proposition 17 lost statewide, 52.5 to 47.5 percent. On May 22, 1979, Mark Dubois chained himself to a boulder in the canyon, and operators opened the gates, holding the lake at 808 feet. On November 20, 1980, the state water board capped the lake at the old Parrott's Ferry Bridge, 844 feet, and operations passed to Reclamation with that limit in place. The wet winters of 1982 and 1983 filled the reservoir anyway, and the state lifted the cap in March 1983.
CDEC's daily elevation record for New Melones starts in 1985. The highest reading in it is 1,083.82 feet on July 19 and 20, 1998, about four feet under the spillway crest, with 2006 (1,082.80 feet) and 2011 (1,081.52 feet) close behind. Month end storage in June 1983 was 2,368,700 acre-feet, essentially the same as the 1998 peak. The record low is 721.15 feet on October 1, 1992, when the lake held 83,631 acre-feet, 3.5 percent of capacity. The more recent dry spells bottomed out at 797.40 feet on November 7, 2015, and at 874.62 feet on November 1, 2022. Big years undo that fast. In 2017 the lake rose from 883.56 feet on January 1 to 1,068.55 feet in early July, and in 2023 from 899.65 feet to 1,059.00 feet by July 9. Low water matters below the surface too. The old Melones Dam still stands on the lake bottom and partly blocks the cold water that fall releases need for salmon and steelhead in the river, so irrigation deliveries have at times been cut to keep enough depth in the lake through autumn.
New Melones Lake — frequently asked
What is New Melones Lake's full pool elevation?
1,088 feet. Reclamation lists that as both the spillway crest and the top of the joint use pool, and at that level the lake holds 2.4 million acre-feet across about 12,500 acres. The spillway is an ungated, unlined channel about a mile northwest of the dam, rated at 112,600 cubic feet per second with the lake at 1,123.4 feet. The top of the dam is at 1,135 feet. Below full pool, the top of the active conservation pool sits at 1,049.5 feet.
What is the record high at New Melones?
In CDEC's daily elevation data, which begins in 1985, the peak is 1,083.82 feet on July 19 and 20, 1998, with 2,367,876 acre-feet in storage. June 1983, the spring the lake first filled, ended the month at 2,368,700 acre-feet, essentially the same volume, but daily elevations from that year are not in the CDEC record. The next highest daily readings are 1,082.80 feet in June 2006 and 1,081.52 feet in July 2011. The gauge on this page only keeps readings since 2022, so the high and low it shows are recent marks.
What is the lowest New Melones has ever been?
721.15 feet on October 1, 1992. Storage that day was 83,631 acre-feet, 3.5 percent of capacity, and between 1987 and 1992 Reclamation had to buy water from other agencies to meet New Melones obligations. The later droughts did not go that deep: the 2015 low was 797.40 feet on November 7, and the 2022 low was 874.62 feet on November 1.
Why does New Melones take so long to refill?
Because the reservoir holds far more than the Stanislaus River delivers in an average year, more than twice the annual flow by the estimates made when it was planned. Yield has come in near 200,000 acre-feet a year against the 335,000 Reclamation projected, and the demands on it outstrip supply in most years. Refills come in wet years: 2017 raised the lake about 185 feet between January and July, and 2023 raised it about 159 feet.
What is under New Melones Lake?
The old Melones Dam, a 211 foot concrete arch finished in 1926, was never removed and was inundated when the new lake filled. The settlement of Melones, founded at the site of a ferry that began running in 1848 and later known as Robinson's Ferry, also went under after filling began on April 1, 1978. The flooded canyon above it was one of the most popular whitewater runs in the country before the dam.
Why was the lake held at Parrott's Ferry Bridge?
Opponents of the dam wanted to spare the river canyon upstream, so they pushed to stop the lake at the old Parrott's Ferry Bridge, 844 feet, or about 438,000 acre-feet of storage. The state water board set that as a temporary limit on November 20, 1980. The record wet winters of 1982 and 1983 pushed the lake past it, and with the reservoir full the state lifted the limit in March 1983.
What fish are in New Melones and how is the kokanee fishery?
CDFW lists eight sport fish in the reservoir: kokanee, rainbow trout, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, black crappie, bluegill and channel catfish. The department stocks fingerling kokanee every year. In its 2021 survey, taken with the lake at about 43 percent of capacity, kokanee averaged 13.5 inches, above the department's target, and nearly half were naturally spawned rather than hatchery fish. Rainbow trout averaged 14.6 inches.
Other lakes near New Melones Lake
- Lake OrovilleCA
- New Hogan LakeCA
- Pine Flat LakeCA
- New Bullards Bar ReservoirCA
- Prosser Creek ReservoirCA
- Millerton LakeCA
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
Add this gauge to your website
Run a marina, boat rental, guide service, or real-estate site on New Melones Lake? Put this free live-level widget on your page — just copy and paste the code: