Cachuma Lake water level
Santa Ynez River · California · operated by USBR (Bradbury Dam)
By Michael, independent developer behind zovo.one. Readings pulled live from the same CDEC feed the operator reports to.
Cachuma Lake is 83% full as of Nov 4, 2026, per CDEC data; 11.0 ft below full pool.
Is that normal for the date?
At 742.02 ft, Cachuma Lake is higher than 78% of Novembers in 20 years of daily record.
The median for this date across 20 years is 729.64 ft, so this is +12.38 ft against the lake’s own history. Placed on a quantile ladder built from 6,962 daily readings published by CDEC for site CCH, 2007-03-11 to 2026-08-06. This reservoir typically peaks in January and bottoms out in December.
Cachuma Lake today: level, trend, source and access
Level against full pool
On Nov 4, 2026 the surface sat at 742.0 ft, 11.0 ft below the full-pool mark of 753 ft. It held 161,211 acre-feet of its 193,305 acre-foot capacity (83% full), so it needs about 32,000 acre-feet more to fill. CDEC put its storage at 133% of the historical average for Nov 4, at or above a normal year for the date. Of the 12 California lakes on this site with a live percent-full reading, it ranks 3 of 12.
Trend
Between Oct 6 and Nov 4 (29 days) the level fell 1.1 ft, about 0.3 ft a week. The high in that window was 743.1 ft on Oct 6 and the low was 742.0 ft on Nov 4. In the last 7 days it fell 0.2 ft. The last 24 hours moved it down 0.06 ft.
Data source
The elevation comes from California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) station CCH (California Department of Water Resources), last reported Nov 4, 2026. Percent full is CDEC storage divided by the capacity CDEC lists for the dam. 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. USBR (Bradbury Dam) runs the dam on the Santa Ynez River.
Recreation status
Status: healthy. At 83% full it is 23.0 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 USBR (Bradbury Dam). If the 30-day pace of 0.3 ft a week down held, the surface would be near 740.9 ft in four weeks. Releases and rain change that quickly.
To see where today sits against every monthly reading since 1955, the Cachuma Lake water level chart plots the whole CDEC storage record and ranks the latest month against the same month in every year.
Check an elevation against full pool
For readers outside the U.S., the surface of Cachuma Lake is about 226.2 m above sea level, and full pool is about 229.5 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.