3.85 ft Rumsey gauge
level 3.7 ft below full pool — typical for mid-August
Reading comes straight from U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (USGS gauge 11450000) and updates live when you load this page.
Clear Lake through the year
The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 1980–2026. The summer drawdown — and how this year sits in it — shows up without reading a single number.
This year vs the years that matter
This year's trace against last year and the driest and wettest years on record — the drought-context question every lake regular asks.
- 2026 (wettest on record)
- 2022 (driest on record)
- 2025 (last year)
Full pool, datum, and the gauge
"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. The full explainer covers flood pool and dead pool too.
| Full pool | 7.56 ft Rumsey gauge · per Yolo County Flood Control & WCD (Cache Creek Dam); levels tracked by Lake County full-pool reference |
|---|---|
| Conservation capacity | 526,800 acre-feet · per Yolo County Flood Control & WCD (Cache Creek Dam); levels tracked by Lake County capacity reference |
| Gauge | USGS gauge 11450000 · U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System |
| Datum | Rumsey gauge — Clear Lake levels are universally quoted on the Rumsey scale: full = 7.56'R (=1325.82 ft NGVD29); zero Rumsey = 1318.256 ft NGVD29. Live value is USGS 00065 stage on the Rumsey datum. Same gauge also publishes 62615 NAVD88 elevation (1324.56 same day) since 2023. |
| Last verified | August 15, 2026 |
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.
Quick answers
How full is Clear Lake right now?
Clear Lake is at 3.85 ft (Rumsey gauge) as of August 14, 2026 — 3.7 ft below full pool — typical for mid-August
Is Clear Lake full?
Not quite — at 3.85 ft, Clear Lake is 3.7 ft below its full pool of 7.56 ft (Rumsey gauge).
What is full pool for Clear Lake?
Full pool (the conservation pool) for Clear Lake is 7.56 ft Rumsey gauge, per Yolo County Flood Control & WCD (Cache Creek Dam); levels tracked by Lake County full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.