Choke Canyon Dam · Frio River · TX
Choke Canyon Reservoir
The larger half of Corpus Christi's two-lake system, and the half that has nearly run out — its level sets the city's drought stages.
Water surface elevation
191.1 ft
Texas Water Development Board, daily · daily value, Sep 30
Water in storage
145,588 acre-feet
Texas Water Development Board, daily · daily value, Sep 30
Share of conservation capacity
22.0% full
against the live feed conservation capacity figure (TWDB Water Data for Texas, statewide conditions feed)
Below full pool
29.4 ft
full pool at 220.5 ft
This month in the record
lower than 93% of the 42 Octobers on record
monthly mean storage; record low 29,382 acre-feet (1984), record high 694,844 acre-feet (2002)
30-day trend
-338 af/day
storage, 2026-08-18 → 2026-09-17; over the year +201 af/day. Measured change, not a forecast.
Drought at the dam
D2 — Severe drought
US Drought Monitor at the dam's coordinates, released 2026-09-17; the feeding basin can differ.
22.0% full
of conservation capacity, by storage (live feed figure, TWDB Water Data for Texas, statewide conditions feed). Sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity.
The water line is elevation (TWDB feed datum); 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.
The last 120 days
Daily water-surface elevation in feet. The axis hugs the data — it does not start at zero. Source: committed snapshot (TWDB, retrieved 2026-09-17).
See the numbers as a table
| Date | Elevation (ft) |
|---|---|
| Sep 17 | 191.41 |
| Sep 16 | 191.42 |
| Sep 15 | 191.45 |
| Sep 14 | 191.48 |
| Sep 13 | 191.52 |
| Sep 12 | 191.55 |
| Sep 11 | 191.59 |
| Sep 10 | 191.63 |
| Sep 9 | 191.65 |
| Sep 8 | 191.68 |
| Sep 7 | 191.71 |
| Sep 6 | 191.75 |
| Sep 5 | 191.77 |
| Sep 4 | 191.80 |
| Sep 3 | 191.83 |
| Sep 2 | 191.87 |
| Sep 1 | 191.90 |
| Aug 31 | 191.93 |
| Aug 30 | 191.96 |
| Aug 29 | 192.00 |
| Aug 28 | 192.03 |
| Aug 27 | 192.07 |
| Aug 26 | 192.09 |
| Aug 25 | 192.12 |
| Aug 24 | 192.16 |
| Aug 23 | 192.20 |
| Aug 22 | 192.23 |
| Aug 21 | 192.26 |
| Aug 20 | 192.29 |
| Aug 19 | 192.32 |
Most recent 30 days shown.
The whole record
Monthly mean elevation, Oct 1999 to Sep 2026. The axis spans the pools, not zero; elevations in TWDB feed datum. Months with fewer than 15 gaged days are dropped, and gaps in the record break the line. Source: TWDB, retrieved 2026-09-17.
See the numbers as a table
| Month | Mean elevation (ft) | Days gaged |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 191.7 | 17 |
| Aug 2026 | 192.4 | 31 |
| Jul 2026 | 182.8 | 31 |
| Jun 2026 | 179.8 | 30 |
| May 2026 | 178.6 | 31 |
| Apr 2026 | 178.7 | 19 |
| Mar 2026 | 179.4 | 31 |
| Feb 2026 | 180.2 | 28 |
| Jan 2026 | 180.8 | 31 |
| Dec 2025 | 181.3 | 24 |
| Nov 2025 | 182.0 | 18 |
| Oct 2025 | 182.6 | 31 |
| Sep 2025 | 183.2 | 30 |
| Aug 2025 | 183.9 | 30 |
| Jul 2025 | 184.4 | 31 |
| Jun 2025 | 184.9 | 30 |
| May 2025 | 185.5 | 31 |
| Apr 2025 | 186.1 | 30 |
| Mar 2025 | 186.5 | 31 |
| Feb 2025 | 187.0 | 28 |
| Jan 2025 | 187.3 | 31 |
| Dec 2024 | 187.6 | 31 |
| Nov 2024 | 188.1 | 30 |
| Oct 2024 | 188.7 | 31 |
Most recent 24 months shown; the full monthly series is in the page's API response.
Storage against capacity
Monthly mean storage in acre-feet, zero baseline. The dashed line is the live feed conservation capacity figure (TWDB Water Data for Texas, statewide conditions feed) — sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity. Storage can legitimately rise past a conservation-pool line when the flood pool is in use.
See the numbers as a table
| Month | Mean storage (acre-feet) | Days gaged |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 151,847 | 17 |
| Aug 2026 | 160,338 | 31 |
| Jul 2026 | 80,751 | 31 |
| Jun 2026 | 55,688 | 30 |
| May 2026 | 49,313 | 31 |
| Apr 2026 | 49,478 | 30 |
| Mar 2026 | 53,529 | 31 |
| Feb 2026 | 57,593 | 28 |
| Jan 2026 | 61,159 | 31 |
| Dec 2025 | 64,563 | 31 |
| Nov 2025 | 68,203 | 30 |
| Oct 2025 | 73,208 | 31 |
| Sep 2025 | 76,793 | 30 |
| Aug 2025 | 82,544 | 31 |
| Jul 2025 | 86,060 | 31 |
| Jun 2025 | 89,694 | 30 |
| May 2025 | 94,567 | 31 |
| Apr 2025 | 99,151 | 30 |
| Mar 2025 | 102,657 | 31 |
| Feb 2025 | 106,775 | 28 |
| Jan 2025 | 109,218 | 31 |
| Dec 2024 | 112,132 | 31 |
| Nov 2024 | 116,412 | 30 |
| Oct 2024 | 122,563 | 31 |
Most recent 24 months shown.
Where these numbers come from
Readings at Choke Canyon Reservoir 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 conservation capacity figure is the live feed TWDB Water Data for Texas, statewide conditions feed number — its basis: conservation capacity (TWDB); sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity, so the vintage travels with the percent.