Lake Buchanan water level
Colorado River · Texas · operated by LCRA (Buchanan Dam)
By Michael, independent developer behind zovo.one. Readings pulled live from the same USGS feed the operator reports to.
Lake Buchanan is 95.8% full as of Nov 5, 2026, per the Texas Water Development Board; the USGS gage reads 1,018.4 ft, 2.2 ft below full pool.
Lake Buchanan today: level, trend, source and access
Level against full pool
On Nov 5, 2026 the surface sat at 1,018.4 ft, 2.2 ft below the full-pool mark of 1,021 ft. The Texas Water Development Board rates its conservation storage at 95.8% full. Of the 15 Texas lakes on this site with a live percent-full reading, it ranks 4 of 15.
Trend
Between Oct 7 and Nov 5 (29 days) the level fell 0.2 ft, about 0.1 ft a week. The high in that window was 1,018.6 ft on Oct 7 and the low was 1,018.3 ft on Nov 2. In the last 7 days it held level. The last 24 hours changed it by less than 0.1 ft.
Data source
The elevation comes from USGS monitoring location 08148000 (reservoir elevation, parameter 00062), last reported Nov 5, 2026. Percent full is the Texas Water Development Board daily storage estimate for the same lake. Feet from full pool, the trend and the figures above are computed from that reading and the published full-pool elevation; none is typed by hand. LCRA (Buchanan Dam) runs the dam on the Colorado River.
Recreation status
Status: near full. At 95.8% full it is 35.8 points above 60%, the line above which most ramps stay in the water, so a normal ramp day is likely. Ramps still close on their own schedules, so check yours with LCRA (Buchanan Dam).
The Lake Buchanan water level chart plots every row of the Texas Water Development Board record since 1937 against LCRA's full mark, spillway, historic high and historic low.
Check an elevation against full pool
For readers outside the U.S., the surface of Lake Buchanan is about 310.4 m above sea level, and full pool is about 311.0 m.
Check any elevation yourself. Type a level in feet above sea level (a ramp cutoff, a marina mark) to see how far it sits below full pool and in meters.