3623.80 ft NGVD29
level 16.2 ft below full pool — on the low side for late September
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 Bighorn Lake full?
Not quite — 16.2 ft below full pool as of September 24, 2026
How full is Bighorn 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.
Bighorn Lake through the year
The band is the lake's own normal: where the level has run on each calendar day, 1990–2026. 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)
- 2009 (wettest on record)
- 1992 (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 | 3640.00 ft NGVD29 · per US Bureau of Reclamation (Yellowtail Dam) full-pool reference |
|---|---|
| Conservation capacity | 1,011,052 acre-feet · per US Bureau of Reclamation (Yellowtail Dam) capacity reference |
| Gauge | USACE lake gauge · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Access to Water data |
| Datum | NGVD29 — 3640.0 = top of conservation/joint use per USACE CDA levels (USBR project page lists 3614.0 as top of active conservation below the joint-use zone). Top of flood 3657. |
| 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 Bighorn Lake today?
Bighorn Lake is at 3623.80 ft (NGVD29) as of September 24, 2026 — 16.2 ft below full pool — on the low side for late September.
Is Bighorn Lake full?
Not quite — at 3623.80 ft on September 24, 2026, Bighorn Lake is 16.2 ft below its full pool of 3640.00 ft (NGVD29).
How full is Bighorn 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 Bighorn Lake?
Full pool (the conservation pool) for Bighorn Lake is 3640.00 ft NGVD29, per US Bureau of Reclamation (Yellowtail Dam) full-pool reference. Levels above it use flood storage; levels below it are drawdown.