Trinity Lake Water Level
Trinity Lake is at 2,317.22 ft today (Oct 5), 52.78 ft below its 2,370 ft full pool, down 0.98 ft this week.
California · Trinity River
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Water level history
About Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake is a reservoir on the Trinity River in California, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 2370 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from California's Department of Water Resources (CDEC) and update daily.
Understanding Trinity Lake's water level
Trinity Lake is the upper half of a plumbing system that moves water out of the Trinity River basin and over the mountains into the Sacramento Valley. Trinity Dam, an earthfill embankment with a 2,450 foot crest, was completed in 1962 as the anchor of the Central Valley Project's Trinity River Division and holds 2,447,650 acre-feet at full pool. About eight miles downstream, Lewiston Dam reregulates what comes out and feeds the Clear Creek Tunnel, 17.5 feet across and 10.7 miles long, which carries up to 3,200 cubic feet per second east to the Judge Francis Carr Powerhouse and Whiskeytown Lake. Congress authorized average exports of 704,000 acre-feet a year. Reclamation's own history says the division ended up diverting about 90 percent of the Trinity River's flow and that salmon and steelhead runs fell by roughly the same share. The reservoir also buried the gold rush town of Trinity Center, founded in 1851 as a stage stop; a handful of buildings, including the I.O.O.F. hall, were moved to the present town site.
The level answers to a small watershed and a big bucket. The lake drains 688 square miles and averages about 1.32 million acre-feet of inflow a year, so the Trinity River Restoration Program figures it would take roughly 22 months of average inflow to fill it from empty. In a typical year, measured by the state's 1991 to 2020 averages, storage peaks in May near 1.94 million acre-feet and bottoms out in November near 1.40 million, a swing of about half a million acre-feet driven by summer exports and river releases. The biggest change in how that water is split came with the Interior Department's Record of Decision on 19 December 2000, which raised the river's share from about 25 percent to 48 percent of average inflow. Annual river volumes now range from 369,000 acre-feet in critically dry years to 815,000 in extremely wet ones, with summer baseflow held at 450 cubic feet per second for spring Chinook. Lawsuits held the full flows up until a Ninth Circuit ruling in November 2004.
Full pool is 2,370 feet. The highest daily reading in Reclamation's record is 2,378.34 feet on 19 January 1974, when storage touched 2,588,340 acre-feet and the spillway was passing 13,712 cubic feet per second. Spills have been rare since: the last one of any size came in May 2006, when the lake crested at 2,372.95 feet and spillway flow peaked near 2,760 cubic feet per second. The bottom came in the 1976 to 1977 drought, with the lake at 2,120.2 feet and 222,350 acre-feet on 9 November 1977. Recent droughts came within 60 to 70 feet of that, 2,179.14 feet in December 2015 and 2,188.49 feet in December 2022. Low water hits the ramps in a clear order. By TRRP's 2022 survey the bottom of the paved ramp sits at 2,335.6 feet at Stuart Fork, around 2,324 at Pinewood Cove and Tannery Gulch, 2,291.9 at Trinity Center, and 2,238.3 at Cedar Stock, the last paved ramp to lose water.
Trinity Lake — frequently asked
What is Trinity Lake's full pool elevation?
2,370 feet above sea level, which the state's CDEC system lists for its Trinity Lake station (CLE). At that level the lake holds 2,447,650 acre-feet and covers about 16,535 acres. The dam crest sits at 2,395 feet, leaving 25 feet of total freeboard above normal full pool for flood surcharge.
What is the record low at Trinity Lake?
2,120.2 feet on 9 November 1977, at the end of the 1976 to 1977 drought, when storage fell to 222,350 acre-feet, less than a tenth of capacity. The lake then climbed about 40 feet in December 1977 alone. The closest recent approaches were 2,179.14 feet on 8 December 2015 and 2,188.49 feet on 22 December 2022, both roughly 180 to 190 feet below full pool.
What is the record high at Trinity Lake, and does it spill?
The highest daily reading is 2,378.34 feet on 19 January 1974, more than eight feet over full pool, with nearly 2.59 million acre-feet in storage and about 13,700 cubic feet per second going over the spillway. Spills were common in the 1960s and early 1970s but are rare now. The last substantial one was in May 2006, when the lake reached 2,372.95 feet. The recent high and low on this page's gauge cover only the years since 2022.
Why does Trinity Lake refill so slowly?
Its watershed is small for a reservoir this size. Average inflow is about 1.32 million acre-feet a year against a capacity of nearly 2.45 million, and every year a large share goes back out to the Trinity River under the 2000 Record of Decision and through the Clear Creek Tunnel to the Sacramento side. After the 2021 and 2022 drought it took until 2024 and 2025 to get back above 2,340 feet.
Which Trinity Lake boat ramps work at low water?
Using the Trinity River Restoration Program's 2022 survey of the lower end of each paved ramp: Stuart Fork goes dry first at 2,335.6 feet, then Pinewood Cove (2,324.2), Tannery Gulch (2,323.7), Bowerman (2,319.5), Clarke Springs (2,317.7), Fairview (2,309.5) and Trinity Center (2,291.9). Cedar Stock reaches deepest, to 2,238.3 feet, so it is usually the last paved ramp in the water during a drought.
Why was Trinity Lake called Clair Engle Lake?
After California Senator Clair Engle died in office in 1964, the reservoir was renamed in his honor, and older maps and Reclamation histories still use Clair Engle Lake. The original name Trinity Lake was restored in 1997. The state's CDEC station for the lake still uses the code CLE.
How much of Trinity Lake's water goes to the Sacramento Valley?
Congress authorized average exports of 704,000 acre-feet a year through Lewiston Lake and the 10.7 mile Clear Creek Tunnel to Whiskeytown. In the early decades Reclamation diverted about 90 percent of the river's flow. The December 2000 Record of Decision raised the Trinity River's share to about 48 percent of average inflow, with river releases set each year from 369,000 to 815,000 acre-feet depending on the water year forecast.
Other lakes near Trinity Lake
- Tulloch ReservoirCA
- Lake TahoeCA/NV
- Lake BerryessaCA
- Success LakeCA
- Black Butte LakeCA
- Stampede ReservoirCA
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
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