3.07 ft USGS 12393000 gauge stage
level 0.1 ft above full pool — typical for late September
Reading comes straight from U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (USGS gauge 12393000) and updates live when you load this page.
Is Priest Lake full?
Yes, and then some — 0.1 ft above full pool as of September 23, 2026
How full is Priest 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.
Priest Lake through the year
The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 1980–2013. 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.
- 2001 (most recent on record, driest on record)
- 1996 (wettest 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 | 3.00 ft USGS 12393000 gauge stage · per Idaho Dept. of Water Resources (Outlet Dam) full-pool reference |
|---|---|
| Gauge | USGS gauge 12393000 · U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System |
| Datum | USGS 12393000 gauge stage — Priest Lake is managed to a STAGE target, not an elevation: 'operations target 3.0 ft at the Priest Lake outlet gage (USGS 12393000) for recreation' (Idaho Code 70-507). Values are gauge feet; lake surface is ~2,438 ft amsl. |
| 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 Priest Lake today?
Priest Lake is at 3.07 ft (USGS 12393000 gauge stage) as of September 23, 2026 — 0.1 ft above full pool — typical for late September.
Is Priest Lake full?
Yes and then some — at 3.07 ft on September 23, 2026, Priest Lake is 0.1 ft above its full pool of 3.00 ft (USGS 12393000 gauge stage), using flood storage.
How full is Priest 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 Priest Lake?
Full pool (the conservation pool) for Priest Lake is 3.00 ft USGS 12393000 gauge stage, per Idaho Dept. of Water Resources (Outlet Dam) full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.