Benbrook Lake Water Level
Texas · Clear Fork Trinity River
Sponsor Benbrook Lake
Put your marina, real-estate, or local business in front of everyone checking this lake's level. One exclusive sponsor per lake.
Cancel anytime · Questions?
Water level history
About Benbrook Lake
Benbrook Lake is a reservoir on the Clear Fork Trinity River in Texas, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It's a Corps lake on the southwest edge of Fort Worth. Its full summer pool sits at 694 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Benbrook Lake's water level
Benbrook Lake was authorized in 1945 as an answer to the Trinity River floods of 1908, 1922 and 1936, and the proportions still say so: about 85,600 acre-feet of conservation storage under roughly twice that much flood storage. The spillway is uncontrolled, a 500-foot ogee weir with its crest at 724 feet, and it has an unusual detail, a 100-foot notch cut into the centre at 710 feet. That notch starts passing water fourteen feet below the main crest, which softens the transition from controlled release to open spill. Releases are judged downstream on the Clear Fork and West Fork at Fort Worth and at Grand Prairie, with the Fort Worth Floodway the thing being protected.
There is no seasonal drawdown here. Conservation pool is held at 694 feet year round, and everything else is flood evacuation. What the lake does instead is swing hard with drought. The record low is 676.16 feet on 8 October 2011, nearly eighteen feet under conservation pool, and the ten lowest days on record all fall in September and October of that year. Oddly, the lake went lower in October 2019, at 682.09 feet, than it did in 2014. The record high is 716.61 feet on 15 June 1989, about 22 feet into the flood pool.
That instability shows up in the biology. State fisheries staff have planted water willow, cattail and pickerel weed here and none of it established, because the level moves too much for shoreline vegetation to take hold. Structure is dead timber, rock and underwater ridges rather than grass beds. The water itself belongs to three separate holders: the Tarrant Regional Water District holds the largest block at 48,792 acre-feet, with the Benbrook Water and Sewer Authority and the City of Fort Worth holding smaller contracted shares. Around the shoreline runs a fourteen-mile equestrian and hiking trail on the National Trails System, with trailheads at Dutch Branch, Holiday Park and Westcreek Circle, and a bird list of 269 species compiled with the Fort Worth Audubon Society.
Benbrook Lake — frequently asked
What is Benbrook Lake's full pool elevation?
The top of the conservation pool is 694 feet above sea level, holding about 85,600 acre-feet. The top of the flood-control pool is 724 feet, which is also the spillway crest, holding roughly 258,600 acre-feet. The flood pool is about twice the size of the conservation pool, which tells you what the lake was built for.
Does Benbrook Lake have a winter drawdown?
No. The conservation pool is held at 694 feet all year, and the Corps does not run a seasonal pool change here. Any reading well below 694 is drought or the tail of a flood evacuation, not a schedule. That makes Benbrook different from the Kentucky and Tennessee reservoirs on this site, which do drop deliberately every winter.
What are Benbrook Lake's record high and low levels?
The record high in the modern record is 716.61 feet on 15 June 1989, about 22 feet into the flood pool. The record low is 676.16 feet on 8 October 2011, nearly eighteen feet below conservation pool, during the 2011 Texas drought. The ten lowest readings on file all come from September and October 2011.
Why doesn't Benbrook Lake have much aquatic vegetation?
The water level moves too much. State fisheries biologists planted water willow, cattail and pickerel weed here and none of it established, because the lake fluctuates enough between years to strand or drown shoreline plantings. What cover exists is dead standing timber, rock riprap along the dam and submerged ridges and humps rather than grass beds.
What is the notch in the Benbrook spillway?
The spillway is an uncontrolled ogee weir 500 feet long with its crest at 724 feet, and it has a 100-foot-wide notch cut into the centre at 710 feet. The notch begins passing water fourteen feet below the main crest, so flow over the spillway builds gradually rather than starting all at once when the lake reaches 724.
What is there to do at Benbrook Lake?
A fourteen-mile equestrian and hiking trail on the National Trails System runs around the lake, with trailheads at Dutch Branch Park, Holiday Park Campground and Westcreek Circle, plus about ten miles of day-use trail around Rocky Creek Park. Camping is at Bear Creek, Holiday, Longhorn, Mustang and Rocky Creek. The Corps and the Fort Worth Audubon Society have recorded 269 bird species here, with coot abundant in winter.
Other lakes near Benbrook Lake
See current levels for all 27 Texas lakes and reservoirs →
Add this gauge to your website
Run a marina, boat rental, guide service, or real-estate site on Benbrook Lake? Put this free live-level widget on your page — just copy and paste the code: