Philpott Lake Water Level
Philpott Lake is at 966.82 ft today (Oct 6), 7.18 ft below its 974 ft full pool.
Virginia · Smith River
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Water level history
About Philpott Lake
Philpott Lake is a reservoir on the Smith River in Virginia, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its full summer pool sits at 974 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from USGS gauge 02071900 and update every 15 to 60 minutes.
Understanding Philpott Lake's water level
Philpott Dam was built to keep the Smith River out of Bassett. Congress authorized it in the Flood Control Act of 1944, the Corps of Engineers began construction in 1948, and the concrete gravity dam, 220 feet high and 920 feet long, was holding back floods by 1951 and making power by 1953. It stands about 7 miles above Bassett and controls 212 square miles of the upper Smith. The biggest flow ever estimated at the damsite came on 19 October 1937, about 32,000 cubic feet per second. Everything between 974 feet and the spillway crest at 985 is flood storage, 34,200 acre-feet, or three inches of runoff from the whole watershed. The 47 square miles between the dam and Bassett drain fast and can't be forecast, so the Corps holds water in the lake until the local crest has passed the Bassett gauge, then empties the flood pool over roughly five days, keeping Bassett under the 7,800 cubic feet per second where damage in town begins.
Day to day, the level follows a guide curve. The Corps aims to hold the lake near 971.5 feet from October through January and 973.5 feet from April through July, moving in a straight line between the two in spring and fall. That is a planned drawdown of only 2.5 feet, chosen to give a steady pool through boating and swimming season and to refill by early spring so brush doesn't grow up along the bank. At 974 feet the lake covers 2,880 acres and runs 16 miles up the Smith. Below that line, releases were historically set by hydropower, with two main units and a small station unit totaling 14,000 kilowatts run as a peaking plant, and the Corps tries not to drop the lake more than six inches during the bass and crappie spawn. In dry years the lake falls well off the curve: 955.68 feet in September 1999, 961.46 in November 2008, and 965.82 in September 2022. A 2022 Corps draft study recommended setting aside 5,200 acre-feet of that conservation storage for Henry County's water supply, about 4 million gallons a day.
On 22 May 2020 Philpott went over its spillway for the first time since the dam was built. A week of heavy rain lifted the lake to 985.22 feet, the pool of record, and water ran across the ungated 120-foot crest. Two days later saturated hillsides beside the dam gave way and slid onto the powerhouse, blanketing its floors in mud and damaging the switchgear building. The Corps said the dam itself was never in danger, but the plant stopped generating, and that changed the river below. The Smith comes out of the dam at about 50 degrees, and the 31 miles from the dam to Route 636 are special regulation water for wild brown trout, where browns between 10 and 24 inches must be released. Naturally reproduced browns made up 85 percent of the fish in Virginia DWR's latest survey, and biologists credit the change in the volume and timing of releases for bigger, faster growing trout. Flows below the dam can still range from about 65 to 1,400 cubic feet per second, so check the release schedule at 276-629-2432 before wading.
Philpott Lake — frequently asked
What is Philpott Lake's full pool elevation?
974 feet above sea level on the old NGVD29 datum the Corps still uses for its daily lake readings. Newer Corps reports on the NAVD88 datum list the same level as 973.4 feet. At full pool the lake covers 2,880 acres. Flood storage stacks on top of that up to the spillway crest at 985 feet, and the top of the dam is at 1,016. Because of the guide curve, the lake normally sits one to three feet below full pool.
What is Philpott Lake's record high level?
985.22 feet on 22 May 2020, about 11 feet above full pool and just over the spillway crest. It was the first time in the dam's history that water flowed over the spillway. The previous high was 983.06 feet on 22 June 1972, and the lake also reached 982.26 feet in April 1992 and 982.01 feet in November 1985. Two days after the 2020 crest, landslides next to the dam buried the powerhouse in mud.
What is the lowest Philpott Lake has ever been?
927.59 feet on 26 September 1956, about 46 feet below full pool, after a dry summer in which releases through the powerhouse ran far ahead of what the Smith was bringing in. The lake had already been lowered steadily through 1955 and early 1956. It came close again at 928.07 feet on 3 January 1964. Nothing since has approached those marks. The lowest level of the modern era is 955.68 feet on 24 September 1999, during the drought that ran into 2002.
Why is Philpott Lake low?
Most of the time it isn't low, just on schedule. The guide curve holds the lake near 971.5 feet from October through January, 2.5 feet under full pool, and refills it to 973.5 by April. Deeper drops come from drought: the Corps keeps releasing water to meet minimum flows on the Smith River below the dam, including a summer target of 59 cubic feet per second at Stanleytown, and the lake slides when inflow can't keep up, as in 1999, 2008 and 2022.
How fast does Philpott Lake come down after a flood?
Usually within about five days. When a storm pushes the lake above 974 feet, the Corps waits until the local crest has passed the Bassett gauge, and in smaller floods holds releases another 24 hours to spare the Dan River. Then one sluice gate opens at about 4,400 cubic feet per second, or 5,700 with the turbines running. If the lake rises above the spillway crest, releases are raised to hold Bassett near a 10-foot stage, about 7,800 cubic feet per second.
Is Philpott Dam generating hydropower?
Generation stopped after the landslides of 24 May 2020 filled the powerhouse with mud and damaged the switchgear building. The plant's two main units are rated at 6,700 kilowatts each, with a 600-kilowatt station unit. A 2023 federal maintenance briefing listed a $25.3 million rehabilitation with planned return dates of January 2024 for Unit 2 and May 2025 for Unit 1, while warning that hillside repairs made the schedule uncertain. Call 276-629-2432 for current releases.
What fish are in Philpott Lake?
Walleye are the headline fish. Virginia DWR stocks about 144,000 fingerlings a year because the lake produces few on its own, and most run 17 to 21 inches, with occasional fish of 6 to 8 pounds holding 15 to 25 feet down in the clear lower lake. Largemouth bass far outnumber smallmouth, though DWR still ranks the smallmouth among the region's better reservoir fisheries. Crappie are scarce but average 9 to 12 inches.
Flow released below Philpott Lake
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 Philpott Lake
- Smith Mountain LakeVA
- Kerr Lake (Buggs Island Lake)VA/NC
- South Holston LakeTN/VA
- John W. Flannagan ReservoirVA
- Claytor LakeVA
- Lake GastonVA/NC
See current levels for all 7 Virginia lakes and reservoirs →
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