Pine Flat Lake water level
Kings River · California · operated by USACE (Pine Flat Dam)
By Michael, independent developer behind zovo.one. Readings pulled live from the same CDEC feed the operator reports to.
Pine Flat Lake is 19% full as of Nov 4, 2026, per CDEC data; 216.5 ft below full pool.
Is that normal for the date?
At 753.48 ft, Pine Flat Lake is lower than 62% of Novembers in 41 years of daily record.
A real Pine Flat sample: September history
The middle half of recorded September elevations was 726.21–827.80 ft. The median was 762.04 ft. This is historical context, not today’s reading.
See the threshold example and source
For an illustrative 800 ft threshold, 680 of 1,101 recorded September days (61.8%) were below it. This is not a published ramp elevation or a forecast.
The purchased file lets you enter your own verified ramp or dock elevation and explore the full record. Match its vertical datum to the lake readings before comparing. Historical water levels cannot confirm ramp access or a safe launch; check with the operator.
Source: CDEC station PNF, elevation sensor 6, 1985-01-01 to 2026-08-06. September observations only; missing days excluded and each observed day counted equally. The 25th–75th percentiles describe the middle half, not a guaranteed operating range.
Free above: the current reading and its historical context. The $19 download adds the offline almanac, all 366 daily normal ranges, threshold explorer and CSV records for Pine Flat. One payment; no subscription.
The median for this date across 41 years is 765.39 ft, so this is -11.91 ft against the lake’s own history. Placed on a quantile ladder built from 13,451 daily readings published by CDEC for site PNF, 1985-01-01 to 2026-08-06. This reservoir typically peaks in June and bottoms out in September.
Pine Flat Lake today: level, trend, source and access
Level against full pool
On Nov 4, 2026 the surface sat at 753.5 ft, 216.5 ft below the full-pool mark of 970 ft. It held 185,080 acre-feet of its 1,000,000 acre-foot capacity (19% full), so it needs about 815,000 acre-feet more to fill. CDEC put its storage at 66% of the historical average for Nov 4, well below a normal year for the date. Of the 12 California lakes on this site with a live percent-full reading, it ranks 12 of 12, the lowest.
Trend
Between Oct 6 and Nov 4 (29 days) the level rose 9.0 ft, about 2.2 ft a week. The high in that window was 753.5 ft on Nov 4 and the low was 744.5 ft on Oct 6. In the last 7 days it rose 1.4 ft. The last 24 hours moved it up 0.20 ft.
Data source
The elevation comes from California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) station PNF (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. USACE (Pine Flat Dam) runs the dam on the Kings River.
Recreation status
Status: low. At 19% full it is 16.0 points under 35%, where many ramps end above the waterline and stumps, sandbars and rock shelves show. Call USACE (Pine Flat Dam) before you tow a boat there. If the 30-day pace of 2.2 ft a week up held, the surface would be near 762.1 ft in four weeks. Releases and rain change that quickly.
To see where today sits against every monthly reading since 1951, the Pine Flat 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 Pine Flat Lake is about 229.7 m above sea level, and full pool is about 295.7 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.