Pine Flat Dam · Kings River · CA
Pine Flat Lake
The Kings River's flood-control pool above Fresno — the valley farm towns' snowmelt bank, and the Corps dam whose releases the Kings River watermaster divides.
Water surface elevation
741.8 ft
US Army Corps, hourly · Sep 30, 10:00 AM PDT
Water in storage
157,506 acre-feet
US Army Corps, hourly · Sep 30, 12:00 AM PDT
Share of conservation capacity
15.8% full
against the retrieved 2026-09-17 conservation capacity figure (USACE CWMS series SPK/Pine Flat Lake.Stor-Top Con.Inst.~1Day.0.Calc-val)
Below full pool
209.7 ft
full pool at 951.5 ft
This month in the record
lower than 71% of the 52 Septembers on record
monthly mean storage; record low 29,059 acre-feet (1990), record high 887,865 acre-feet (1983)
30-day trend
-1,519 af/day
storage, 2026-08-18 → 2026-09-17; over the year -165 af/day. Measured change, not a forecast.
Drought at the dam
D0 — Abnormally dry
US Drought Monitor at the dam's coordinates, released 2026-09-17; the feeding basin can differ.
15.8% full
of conservation capacity, by storage (retrieved 2026-09-17 figure, USACE CWMS series SPK/Pine Flat Lake.Stor-Top Con.Inst.~1Day.0.Calc-val). Sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity.
The water line is elevation (USACE project 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 (USACE CWMS, retrieved 2026-09-17).
See the numbers as a table
| Date | Elevation (ft) |
|---|---|
| Sep 17 | 742.50 |
| Sep 16 | 742.37 |
| Sep 15 | 742.32 |
| Sep 14 | 742.30 |
| Sep 13 | 742.33 |
| Sep 12 | 742.33 |
| Sep 11 | 742.37 |
| Sep 10 | 742.28 |
| Sep 9 | 742.18 |
| Sep 8 | 742.69 |
| Sep 7 | 743.52 |
| Sep 6 | 744.40 |
| Sep 5 | 745.26 |
| Sep 4 | 746.12 |
| Sep 3 | 747.04 |
| Sep 2 | 747.93 |
| Sep 1 | 748.78 |
| Aug 31 | 749.55 |
| Aug 30 | 750.35 |
| Aug 29 | 751.16 |
| Aug 28 | 751.92 |
| Aug 27 | 752.67 |
| Aug 26 | 753.47 |
| Aug 25 | 754.37 |
| Aug 24 | 755.23 |
| Aug 23 | 756.09 |
| Aug 22 | 757.07 |
| Aug 21 | 757.97 |
| Aug 20 | 758.88 |
| Aug 19 | 759.81 |
Most recent 30 days shown.
Storage against capacity
Monthly mean storage in acre-feet, zero baseline. The dashed line is the retrieved 2026-09-17 conservation capacity figure (USACE CWMS series SPK/Pine Flat Lake.Stor-Top Con.Inst.~1Day.0.Calc-val) — 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 | 163,352 | 17 |
| Aug 2026 | 218,038 | 31 |
| Jul 2026 | 438,738 | 28 |
| Jun 2026 | 713,245 | 26 |
| May 2026 | 853,618 | 31 |
| Apr 2026 | 815,335 | 30 |
| Mar 2026 | 680,233 | 31 |
| Feb 2026 | 541,559 | 28 |
| Jan 2026 | 457,857 | 31 |
| Dec 2025 | 331,437 | 31 |
| Nov 2025 | 281,927 | 30 |
| Oct 2025 | 245,516 | 31 |
| Sep 2025 | 224,339 | 30 |
| Aug 2025 | 281,494 | 31 |
| Jul 2025 | 517,804 | 31 |
| Jun 2025 | 796,887 | 30 |
| May 2025 | 813,790 | 31 |
| Apr 2025 | 715,776 | 30 |
| Mar 2025 | 605,251 | 31 |
| Feb 2025 | 519,884 | 28 |
| Jan 2025 | 468,305 | 31 |
| Dec 2024 | 432,836 | 31 |
| Nov 2024 | 404,306 | 30 |
| Oct 2024 | 397,730 | 31 |
Most recent 24 months shown.
Where these numbers come from
Readings at Pine Flat 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 conservation capacity figure is the retrieved 2026-09-17 USACE CWMS series SPK/Pine Flat Lake.Stor-Top Con.Inst.~1Day.0.Calc-val number — its basis: top of conservation pool (Corps seasonal series, total-volume basis; summer maximum); sedimentation slowly shrinks real capacity, so the vintage travels with the percent.