Gulf Coast Gauges

Lake Houston water level

Water-supply lake run by the City of Houston · USGS station 08072000 · NWS gauge HSJT2

42.17 ft

water surface elevation, Oct 23, 2026 at 11:30 AM CDT

Water stored
133,700 acre-feet
Highest daily high since 1996
53.12 ft (August 29, 2017)

Lake Houston is a water-supply lake, run by the City of Houston. It is normally held near a steady level, rising after heavy rain and falling in dry spells.

Elevation is the height of the lake surface above the gauge's reference level, not a water depth. Storage is USGS's estimate of the water held, in acre-feet (one acre-foot covers an acre a foot deep).

Active National Weather Service alerts for Harris County

Text as issued by NWS Houston/Galveston.

Last 7 days

42.1 42.3 42.6 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct 21 Oct 22 Oct 23

Hourly averages of USGS readings.

Highest level each year since 1996

42 45 48 51 54 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 Water year 1996: 46.31 ft on September 28, 1996 Water year 1997: 46.57 ft on March 13, 1997 Water year 1998: 47.49 ft on January 9, 1998 Water year 1999: 50.11 ft on November 15, 1998 Water year 2000: 46.18 ft on May 20, 2000 Water year 2001: 48.79 ft on June 10, 2001 Water year 2002: 46.63 ft on December 14, 2001 Water year 2016: 47.86 ft on May 29, 2016 Water year 2017: 53.12 ft on August 29, 2017 Water year 2018: 44.34 ft on April 1, 2018 Water year 2019: 48.27 ft on September 20, 2019 Water year 2020: 43.13 ft on October 30, 2019 Water year 2021: 44.15 ft on May 24, 2021 Water year 2022: 43.57 ft on January 9, 2022 Water year 2023: 44.38 ft on January 30, 2023 Water year 2024: 48.44 ft on May 4, 2024 Water year 2025: 43.29 ft on June 16, 2025 Water year 2026: 43.52 ft on July 15, 2026 Water year 2027 so far: 42.80 ft on October 3, 2026 2017 1999 2001

Each dot is the highest USGS daily high of a water year (October to September); the hollow dot is this year so far. Dashed lines are NWS references. Hover a dot for its date.

NWS historic crests

DateCrest
August 29, 201753.12 ft
October 19, 199452.79 ft
April 19, 197949.50 ft
May 18, 198949.10 ft
May 20, 198348.00 ft
May 29, 201647.86 ft
June 27, 198947.40 ft
August 18, 198347.10 ft

As published by the National Weather Service. They can differ slightly from USGS daily values: a crest is the single highest reading.

In past storms

StormHighestDayRise
October 1–2, 202642.80 ftOctober 3, 20260.6 ft

From USGS daily highs across each storm's window.

The county's reading

A separate instrument; small differences from USGS are normal.

Download

lake-houston.csv (CSV): the USGS daily record for Lake Houston, one row per day with the daily high elevation and daily average storage.

Source. Elevation and storage from the U.S. Geological Survey; NWS references from the National Water Prediction Service. Recent USGS values are provisional.