Water level
John H. Kerr Reservoir water level
John H. Kerr Reservoir is at 290.30 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 02079490.
What this level means
Kerr Lake is a flood-control reservoir, and the pool moves with rainfall across the Roanoke basin rather than on a fixed calendar. The U.S. Geological Survey gauge at the dam near Boydton reports the water surface elevation continuously. The USGS daily-values service does not currently publish a long record for this station, so this page shows the range of the last 120 days rather than all-time records.
How this reading is taken
USGS gauge 02079490 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 John H. Kerr Reservoir 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 John H. Kerr Reservoir?
The USGS gauge at the dam near Boydton, Virginia read 290.29 feet, the lowest point of the last 120 days.
Is Kerr Lake rising or falling?
It has been falling. The gauge peaked at 299.93 feet on May 29, 2026 and has dropped about 9.6 feet since then.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these public sources.