5.96 ft Idaho Dept. of Water Resources
level Reading is typical for mid-August.
Reading comes straight from U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (USGS gauge 13238500) and updates live when you load this page.
Payette 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)
- 1987 (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 | not published by the operator |
|---|---|
| Gauge | USGS gauge 13238500 · U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System |
| Datum | Idaho Dept. of Water Resources — USGS 13238500 is a stage gauge (ft, gauge datum). Full pool commonly cited ~4,990 ft elevation but no authoritative full-pool figure (in stage or elevation) verified — left null per no-guess rule. |
| 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 Payette Lake right now?
Payette Lake is at 5.96 ft (Idaho Dept. of Water Resources) as of August 14, 2026 — Reading is typical for mid-August.
Is Payette Lake full?
Idaho Dept. of Water Resources (lake regulation, McCall) doesn't publish a conservation-pool figure for Payette Lake, so this page shows the reading against the lake's own seasonal history instead.
What is full pool for Payette Lake?
Idaho Dept. of Water Resources (lake regulation, McCall) doesn't publish a single conservation-pool elevation for Payette Lake. The seasonal chart shows the range the lake actually runs instead.