1208.75 ft Reclamation project datum
level 1.3 ft below full pool — typical for late September
Reading comes from California DWR — California Data Exchange Center (CDEC station WHI) by way of our own server, which asks the agency each time you load this page and passes on its figure in the agency's own datum, unchanged. Most of these reservoirs report every hour and a few report once a day, so the stamp beside the reading is a time of day for some lakes and a date for others — whichever CDEC put on it. For everything else the agency publishes about this reservoir, go to Whiskeytown Lake at CDEC.
Is Whiskeytown Lake full?
Not quite — 1.3 ft below full pool as of September 23, 2026
How full is Whiskeytown Lake? Not as a percentage: no storage figure comes through with this gauge reading, and a share of capacity worked out from the elevation alone would be a guess — how much water a reservoir holds at a given level is a curve only the operator's own capacity table knows. Feet from full pool is what the operator publishes, and it is the figure above.
Whiskeytown Lake through the year
The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 1985–2026. 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 (this year)
- 2025 (last year)
- 2024 (wettest on record)
- 1991 (driest on record)
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 | 1210.00 ft Reclamation project datum · per Bureau of Reclamation (Whiskeytown NRA) full-pool reference |
|---|---|
| Conservation capacity | 241,100 acre-feet · per Bureau of Reclamation (Whiskeytown NRA) capacity reference |
| Gauge | CDEC station WHI · California DWR — California Data Exchange Center |
| Datum | Reclamation project datum |
| 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
What is the lake level for Whiskeytown Lake today?
Whiskeytown Lake is at 1208.75 ft (Reclamation project datum) as of September 23, 2026 — 1.3 ft below full pool — typical for late September.
Is Whiskeytown Lake full?
Not quite — at 1208.75 ft on September 23, 2026, Whiskeytown Lake is 1.3 ft below its full pool of 1210.00 ft (Reclamation project datum).
How full is Whiskeytown Lake?
Not as a percentage: no storage figure comes through with this gauge reading, and a share of capacity worked out from the elevation alone would be a guess — how much water a reservoir holds at a given level is a curve only the operator's own capacity table knows. Feet from full pool is what the operator publishes, and it is the figure above.
What is full pool for Whiskeytown Lake?
Full pool (the conservation pool) for Whiskeytown Lake is 1210.00 ft Reclamation project datum, per Bureau of Reclamation (Whiskeytown NRA) full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.