Water level
Lake Murray water level
Lake Murray is at 354.86 ft as of Sep 9, 2026. Live readings, trend, history and what the level means for swimming and boat ramps.
Recent readings
Daily values from USGS gauge 02168500.
What this level means
Lake Murray is a hydroelectric reservoir, so the level responds to generation at Saluda Dam and rainfall in the Saluda basin. The U.S. Geological Survey gauge near Columbia reports the water surface elevation continuously. Over the last 120 days it has stayed within a band of about two feet, which is normal for a lake operated this way.
How this reading is taken
USGS gauge 02168500 measures the water surface and publishes the value continuously. This page stores the latest reading at build time and refreshes the record daily, so the figure above is a real measurement rather than a model or an estimate.
No operating agency publishes a full pool elevation for Lake Murray that we can cite, so this page shows the reading and its trend without a percentage.
Elevations are given in feet above the gauge datum used by the operating agency. Two lakes are only comparable with each other through how full they are, not through their raw elevation, because each dam sits at a different height.
Water level questions
What is the current water level at Lake Murray?
The USGS gauge near Columbia, South Carolina read 354.86 feet, near the middle of its range for the last four months.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these public sources.