Perfect World
Hydrology Metering

Grand Coulee Dam · Columbia River · WA

Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake

The pool behind the largest power plant in the United States. No public storage series reports here, so this page shows elevation only.

Water surface elevation

1,284.2 ft

USGS gage, 15-minute · Aug 4, 12:00 PM PDT

Water in storage

no reading

daily record

Share of capacity

no storage figure

storage ÷ capacity; ships only where both halves are verified

Below full pool

5.8 ft

full pool at 1,290.0 ft

This month in the record

lower than 60% of the 87 Septembers on record

monthly mean elevation; record low 961.2 ft (1938), record high 1,290.1 ft (1943)

30-day trend

-0.09 ft/day

elevation, 2026-07-042026-08-03; over the year 0.00 ft/day. Measured change, not a forecast.

Drought at the dam

D1 — Moderate drought

US Drought Monitor at the dam's coordinates, released 2026-08-27; the feeding basin can differ.

full pool 1,290 ftcolumn continues below1,284

elevation only

No public storage series reports for this reservoir, so no percent ships.

The water line is elevation (NGVD29); the percentage is storage ÷ capacity. They are different measures — a reservoir's volume is not linear in its depth, so the line's height in this column is not the percentage.

Snowpack in the feeding basin

Measured across the US side of the upper Columbia — roughly half this basin's snow falls in Canada, beyond SNOTEL's reach.

Snow season

typically Oct 20 – Jun 18

0 in on the ground, 2026-09-01; median peak 25.2 in around Apr 24

Last winter's verdict

104% of median peak

water year 2026 — the snow that fed this year's pool

5 highest active SNOTEL stations in the basin (Barker Lakes, Saddle Mtn., Warm Springs, …), NRCS AWDB REST (SNOTEL), station set pinned 2026-08-31. Daily snow-water equivalent against the stations' own 30-year medians; off season the percent is withheld rather than divided by zero.

The last 91 days

Daily water-surface elevation in feet. The axis hugs the data — it does not start at zero. Source: USGS NWIS daily values.

1246.81270.21293.6May 5Jun 19Aug 31284.0
See the numbers as a table
DateElevation (ft)
Aug 31283.98
Aug 21284.17
Aug 11284.26
Jul 311284.45
Jul 301285.13
Jul 291285.38
Jul 281285.70
Jul 271285.99
Jul 261286.36
Jul 251286.50
Jul 241286.86
Jul 231287.77
Jul 221287.77
Jul 211288.07
Jul 201288.36
Jul 191288.32
Jul 181288.55
Jul 171288.61
Jul 161288.65
Jul 151288.42
Jul 141288.43
Jul 131288.40
Jul 121288.85
Jul 111288.85
Jul 101289.03
Jul 91289.03
Jul 81288.88
Jul 71288.49
Jul 61287.82
Jul 51287.13

Most recent 30 days shown.

The whole record

Monthly mean elevation, May 1938 to Jul 2026. The axis spans the pools, not zero; elevations in NGVD29. Months with fewer than 15 gaged days are dropped, and gaps in the record break the line. Source: USGS NWIS, retrieved 2026-08-31.

monthly mean elevationpool reference lines
9381,1241,310May 1938Dec 1981Jul 2026full pool1,287
See the numbers as a table
MonthMean elevation (ft)Days gaged
Jul 20261287.431
Jun 20261281.430
May 20261260.631
Apr 20261253.230
Mar 20261254.931
Feb 20261271.528
Jan 20261281.731
Dec 20251285.531
Nov 20251286.030
Oct 20251285.931
Sep 20251279.330
Aug 20251281.331
Jul 20251287.131
Jun 20251282.430
May 20251268.331
Apr 20251272.730
Mar 20251276.931
Feb 20251280.928
Jan 20251286.431
Dec 20241283.331
Nov 20241284.330
Oct 20241285.631
Sep 20241282.130
Aug 20241281.931

Most recent 24 months shown; the full monthly series is in the page's API response.

Where these numbers come from

Readings at Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake are the measuring agencies' own: each value above names its source (USGS gage, Bureau of Reclamation daily record, Army Corps project data, or this desk's committed copy) and its observation time in the reservoir's own time zone. The capacity figure is the project figure USBR Grand Coulee project data number; sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity, so the vintage travels with the percent.