New Melones Lake water level
Stanislaus River · California · operated by USBR (New Melones Dam)
By Michael, independent developer behind zovo.one. Readings pulled live from the same CDEC feed the operator reports to.
New Melones Lake is 63% full as of Nov 4, 2026, per CDEC data; 84.2 ft below full pool.
Is that normal for the date?
At 1,003.84 ft, New Melones Lake is higher than 59% of Novembers in 42 years of daily record.
The median for this date across 42 years is 995.42 ft, so this is +8.42 ft against the lake’s own history. Placed on a quantile ladder built from 14,148 daily readings published by CDEC for site NML, 1985-02-14 to 2026-08-06. This reservoir typically peaks in March and bottoms out in January.
New Melones Lake today: level, trend, source and access
Level against full pool
On Nov 4, 2026 the surface sat at 1,003.8 ft, 84.2 ft below the full-pool mark of 1,088 ft. It held 1,506,694 acre-feet of its 2,400,000 acre-foot capacity (63% full), so it needs about 893,000 acre-feet more to fill. CDEC put its storage at 117% 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 6 of 12.
Trend
Between Oct 6 and Nov 4 (29 days) the level fell 2.0 ft, about 0.5 ft a week. The high in that window was 1,005.8 ft on Oct 7 and the low was 1,003.6 ft on Oct 31. In the last 7 days it held level. The last 24 hours moved it up 0.08 ft.
Data source
The elevation comes from California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) station NML (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 (New Melones Dam) runs the dam on the Stanislaus River.
Recreation status
Status: below normal. At 63% full it is 3.0 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 (New Melones Dam). If the 30-day pace of 0.5 ft a week down held, the surface would be near 1,002.0 ft in four weeks. Releases and rain change that quickly.
To see where today sits against every monthly reading since 1975, the New Melones 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 New Melones Lake is about 306.0 m above sea level, and full pool is about 331.6 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.