Lake Travis water level
Updated just now- Conservation pool
- 82.2%
- Below full pool
- 11.0 ft
Below full pool · Normal conservation level
Trend
Recent timelapses
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Elevation history
Now 670.0 ft (ft).
Climate context — El Niño, rain & the lake
Lake Travis rises and falls with rain over its Hill Country watershed — and that rain swings with the Pacific's El Niño/La Niña cycle. Warm (red) ENSO stretches tend to bring wet winters and refills; cool (blue) stretches line up with the deep droughts, including the 1950s drought of record and 2011, the basin's driest year on record.
What am I looking at? (El Niño, in plain English)
The stripes (ENSO): El Niño and La Niña are a Pacific Ocean temperature cycle that tilts Texas winters wetter or drier. Red stripes are El Niño seasons — they usually bring the Hill Country more rain, which is what refills the lake. Blue stripes are La Niña — usually drier. Darker means stronger. (The official index starts in 1950, so earlier years are blank.)
The thin band (oceans): two much slower ocean cycles — one in the Pacific, one in the Atlantic — set the background odds for entire decades. Amber eras are drought-leaning, green eras wet-leaning. The lake's worst droughts happened when a La Niña landed inside an amber era; and a strong El Niño can still overpower one, which is how the lake refilled in 2015 and 2019. (That index was retired in 2023, so the band stops there.)
The bars (rain): each bar is one water-year of rainfall over the lake's watershed — green above the long-term average, amber below. Watch how the bars and the lake line move together, a season or two apart.
Lake Travis level by year
High and low water level for every year since 1940
| Year | High (ft MSL) | Low (ft MSL) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 670.2 | 663.3 |
| 2025 | 675.4 | 635.3 |
| 2024 | 643.0 | 630.3 |
| 2023 | 639.9 | 626.9 |
| 2022 | 646.7 | 640.0 |
| 2021 | 666.4 | 657.2 |
| 2020 | 673.4 | 659.1 |
| 2019 | 681.7 | 669.6 |
| 2018 | 689.7 | 654.3 |
| 2017 | 682.9 | 669.3 |
| 2016 | 684.9 | 677.6 |
| 2015 | 676.6 | 625.1 |
| 2014 | 629.9 | 622.7 |
| 2013 | 631.5 | 621.1 |
| 2012 | 643.0 | 626.8 |
| 2011 | 667.7 | 626.3 |
| 2010 | 681.3 | 662.9 |
| 2009 | 655.5 | 630.1 |
| 2008 | 682.8 | 655.6 |
| 2007 | 697.4 | 646.8 |
| 2006 | 663.9 | 644.1 |
| 2005 | 682.9 | 663.8 |
| 2004 | 689.0 | 670.5 |
| 2003 | 682.2 | 667.9 |
| 2002 | 682.1 | 666.5 |
| 2001 | 683.2 | 669.5 |
| 2000 | 682.0 | 641.1 |
| 1999 | 682.0 | 664.0 |
| 1998 | 682.9 | 663.5 |
| 1997 | 703.1 | 675.6 |
| 1996 | 675.1 | 653.6 |
| 1995 | 685.4 | 671.6 |
| 1994 | 676.2 | 666.8 |
| 1993 | 681.9 | 667.3 |
| 1992 | 688.1 | 675.5 |
| 1991 | 705.3 | 671.5 |
| 1990 | 679.5 | 655.4 |
| 1989 | 670.1 | 655.3 |
| 1988 | 679.0 | 668.0 |
| 1987 | 685.2 | 670.8 |
| 1986 | 687.0 | 671.5 |
| 1985 | 680.6 | 661.4 |
| 1984 | 667.9 | 637.8 |
| 1983 | 677.5 | 666.7 |
| 1982 | 681.1 | 664.8 |
| 1981 | 683.7 | 671.9 |
| 1980 | 680.5 | 660.9 |
| 1979 | 680.2 | 666.5 |
| 1978 | 665.5 | 646.4 |
| 1977 | 691.0 | 663.9 |
| 1976 | 681.9 | 674.5 |
| 1975 | 688.6 | 674.9 |
| 1974 | 687.8 | 668.9 |
| 1973 | 690.4 | 678.9 |
| 1972 | 677.8 | 670.1 |
| 1971 | 682.6 | 656.0 |
| 1970 | 689.3 | 673.5 |
| 1969 | 681.2 | 672.9 |
| 1968 | 691.8 | 673.6 |
| 1967 | 679.2 | 657.3 |
| 1966 | 684.6 | 671.0 |
| 1965 | 691.5 | 645.8 |
| 1964 | 644.3 | 619.1 |
| 1963 | 665.5 | 615.3 |
| 1962 | 668.2 | 654.0 |
| 1961 | 682.3 | 666.5 |
| 1960 | 682.3 | 663.1 |
| 1959 | 688.0 | 667.6 |
| 1958 | 687.4 | 669.7 |
| 1957 | 705.2 | 666.6 |
| 1956 | 681.0 | 664.7 |
| 1955 | 682.3 | 659.1 |
| 1954 | 679.1 | 664.3 |
| 1953 | 681.3 | 665.5 |
| 1952 | 679.7 | 614.9 |
| 1951 | 623.3 | 615.1 |
| 1950 | 654.3 | 627.7 |
| 1949 | 669.3 | 639.8 |
| 1948 | 648.2 | 637.3 |
| 1947 | 666.3 | 638.8 |
| 1946 | 677.1 | 656.9 |
| 1945 | 682.0 | 664.5 |
| 1944 | 679.3 | 653.1 |
| 1943 | 678.4 | 652.4 |
| 1942 | 690.1 | 639.8 |
| 1941 | 641.2 | 612.0 |
| 1940 | 615.0 | 548.2 |
1940–2021 from TWDB monthly readings (true intra-month extremes can run slightly higher or lower); 2022 onward from daily readings. Full pool is 681 ft.
Lake Travis water level FAQ
Is Lake Travis full right now?
Today the lake is at 670.0 feet — about 82 percent of its conservation pool. Lake Travis is rarely exactly "full": full pool is 681 feet, and as a flood-control reservoir it spends most of its life somewhere below that, rising fast after big Hill Country rains and easing down through dry stretches. The gauge at the top of this page shows exactly how full it is right now.
What is full pool on Lake Travis?
Full (conservation) pool is 681 feet above mean sea level. At that elevation the reservoir holds its full conservation capacity; anything above it is flood storage, up to the 721.4-foot top of flood pool.
Why do Lake Travis water levels change?
Lake Travis is a flood-control and water-supply reservoir on the Colorado River. Levels rise with rainfall and inflows from the Highland Lakes upstream, and fall during dry spells, downstream water releases at Mansfield Dam, and evaporation. It is drawn down far more than a constant-level lake.
How often is this lake level updated?
Our elevation and percent-of-full-pool figures refresh roughly every 10 minutes from the LCRA Hydromet gauge at Mansfield Dam. The freshness pill at the top of the page shows exactly how recent the current reading is.
What does percent of conservation pool mean?
It is the share of the reservoir's conservation storage that is currently full, measured by volume rather than elevation. Because the lake is bowl-shaped, a foot of elevation near the bottom holds far less water than a foot near the top, so the percentage and the elevation do not move in lockstep.
Where does this data come from?
Elevation and flood operations come from LCRA Hydromet at Mansfield Dam; conservation-pool volume and long-term history are from the Texas Water Development Board. Weather forecasts and alerts are from NOAA / National Weather Service, with current conditions from AccuWeather.
Is the lake low because of drought?
Lake Travis routinely sits below full pool — that is by design, since it is kept ready to absorb flood inflows. Sustained drops below the conservation range reflect drought, while rapid rises follow heavy rain in the watershed. The multi-year chart on this page shows the trend in context.
Does El Niño affect Lake Travis?
Strongly. El Niño winters typically bring above-average rain to the Hill Country watershed that feeds the lake, while La Niña years skew dry. The 1950s drought of record, the record-dry 2011 water year, and the 2022–24 drawdown all came during La Niña; the 1991–92, 2015–16, and 2018–19 refills followed El Niño winters. The climate panel on this page shows the full pattern since 1950.
Data sources
- LCRA Hydromet — elevation + flood operations (Mansfield Dam)
- TWDB Water Data for Texas — conservation-pool volume + history since 1940
- NOAA / National Weather Service — forecast + active alerts
- AccuWeather — current conditions + short-term precip
- NOAA Climate Prediction Center — ENSO index (RONI) for the climate panel
- NOAA NCEI nClimDiv — Edwards Plateau divisional rainfall since 1940