lakedates.com

Minnesota · USACE St. Paul District (Reservation Dam)

Lake Traverse water level

Today's reading against full pool and Lake Traverse's own seasonal history.

Searched “Traverse lake level” or “lake level for Lake Traverse”? Same lake, same reading — you're in the right place. The current reading is right here too, whether you typed “current Lake Traverse water level” or “current water level at Lake Traverse”.

FULL POOL 972 974 976
Elevation, feet (project datum)

as of October 1, 2026

976.83 ft project datum

level 0.2 ft below full pool — typical for early October

Reading comes straight from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Access to Water data (USACE lake gauge) and updates live when you load this page.

Is Lake Traverse full?

Not quite — 0.2 ft below full pool as of October 1, 2026

How full is Lake Traverse? 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.

Lake Traverse through the year

The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 2018–2026. The summer drawdown — and how this year sits in it — shows up without reading a single number.

full pool 976 978 980 JFMAMJJASOND
Median and normal range by day of year, 2018–2026 · elevation, feet (project datum)

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.

full pool 976 978 980 JFMAMJJASOND
  • 2026 (this year)
  • 2025 (last year)
  • 2022 (wettest on record)
  • 2020 (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 977.00 ft project datum · per USACE St. Paul District (Reservation Dam) full-pool reference
Conservation capacity 117,100 acre-feet · per USACE St. Paul District (Reservation Dam) capacity reference
Gauge USACE lake gauge · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Access to Water data
Datum project datum — The district publishes the gauge and the top of conservation pool figure in the project's own datum, so the two compare like for like.
Last verified August 20, 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 Lake Traverse today?

Lake Traverse is at 976.83 ft (project datum) as of October 1, 2026 — 0.2 ft below full pool — typical for early October.

Is Lake Traverse full?

Not quite — at 976.83 ft on October 1, 2026, Lake Traverse is 0.2 ft below its full pool of 977.00 ft (project datum).

How full is Lake Traverse?

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 Lake Traverse?

Full pool (the conservation pool) for Lake Traverse is 977.00 ft project datum, per USACE St. Paul District (Reservation Dam) full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.