Water level
Lake Travis water level
Lake Travis is at 677.85 ft (3.1 ft below the 681.0 ft full pool), about 94% full 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 08154500.
Operating levels set by the Corps of Engineers
Reference elevations published by the SWF district for this project.
| Reference level | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Spillway Crest | 714.0 ft |
| Streambed | 502.0 ft |
| Top of Conservation | 681.0 ft |
| Top of Dam | 750.0 ft |
| Top of Flood | 714.0 ft |
| Top of Inactive | 535.8 ft |
What this level means
Lake Travis is the flood-control reservoir for the Highland Lakes, so it is designed to swing. Conservation pool is 681.0 feet; the reservoir can hold water well above that during flood events and is drawn down for water supply during drought. The Lower Colorado River Authority operates the dam, and a USGS gauge near Austin reports the elevation continuously.
How this reading is taken
USGS gauge 08154500 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.
Full pool for Lake Travis is 681.0 ft, so the gap between the reading and that number is what the reservoir is missing.
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 Travis?
The USGS gauge near Austin read 677.82 feet, about 3.2 feet below the 681-foot conservation pool.
How full is Lake Travis?
The Texas Water Development Board reported 93.6 percent of conservation capacity, holding 1,028,259 acre-feet of the 1,098,044 acre-feet the reservoir stores at conservation pool.
Is Lake Travis rising or falling?
It has been falling slowly since mid-July, when the gauge peaked at 685.28 feet, but it remains near the top of its four-month range.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these public sources.