Every reading names its gauge
Nothing here is estimated. Each of the 279 lakes is wired to one public gauge — USGS, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, or a state water office — chosen by hand so it's the gauge that represents the lake people actually mean, not a tailwater station below the dam. The lake page names the gauge, the agency, and the datum, and links straight to the source.
Full pool always means conservation pool
"Full pool" here means the conservation pool — the level the lake is designed to hold for water supply and recreation, not the flood-control space above it. Every full-pool figure on the site carries a source — the operator's water-control page or data portal. Where an operator doesn't publish one, the page says so instead of guessing, and leans on the lake's own seasonal range.
Elevations stay in the operator's datum
A lake gauged in NGVD29 and one gauged in NAVD88 can differ by about a foot for the same water. LakeDates never converts between datums: readings and full-pool lines on a page are always the same datum, and the page says which one. Comparing elevations across lakes is a geodesy exercise, not a boating one.
Lake level is not ramp status
LakeDates reports lake level, not ramp status. Whether a given ramp or marina is usable at this level varies ramp by ramp — call the marina before you tow.
How fresh the numbers are
On most lakes the reading updates live when you load the page, straight from the agency's public feed. Lakes whose agency doesn't allow in-browser reads (some state systems) show the latest reading from the site's most recent refresh, dated. Seasonal bands and year comparisons come from each gauge's full daily record, refreshed through August 15, 2026.
A young gauge says so
"Typical for August" is only honest when the gauge has years behind it. Where the record is too short for percentile bands, the page shows the reading and skips the seasonal verdict rather than inventing one.