Success Lake Water Level
Success Lake is at 591.97 ft today (Oct 31), 60.53 ft below its 652.5 ft full pool, up 0.14 ft this week.
California · Tule River
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Water level history
About Success Lake
Success Lake is a reservoir on the Tule River in California, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its full summer pool sits at 652.5 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Success Lake's water level
Success Lake is the flood control reservoir that sits about five miles upstream of Porterville, behind what has been called Richard L. Schafer Dam since August 2019. Congress authorized it in the Flood Control Act of 1944 after a run of Tule River floods, the worst of them in December 1955, when damage in Tulare County ran well over $20 million. Work began in 1958, the dam was finished in 1961, and the lake was dedicated on May 18, 1962. The Tule River drains about 393 square miles above the dam, and the South Fork, which flows out of the Tule River Indian Reservation, joins the main river at the lake. Schafer himself was the Tule River watermaster for 56 years and pushed for two decades to add storage here. The Lower Tule River Irrigation District, which serves roughly 500 farmers at the peak of the irrigation season, operates the project together with the Corps of Engineers.
The level follows a strict yearly rhythm. Through winter the Corps keeps most of the basin empty for flood space; in February 2017 the flood rules allowed only about 14,000 acre-feet in storage, and in March 2023 the allowed conservation pool was around 23,000 acre-feet. Snowmelt then fills the lake through spring, and Corps records since 1995 put the yearly high in May or June in most years. Irrigation releases draw it down all summer, and the low usually comes in October or November, anywhere from about 575 to 597 feet since 1995. The site's full pool of 652.5 feet is the old spillway crest, where the lake holds about 82,300 acre-feet. Anything above that spills, which is why the irrigation district sandbagged the spillway in wet years such as 1969, 1998 and June 2017 to hold a few more feet.
Seismic doubts shaped the lake for a decade. In 1999 Congress directed the Corps to study the dam, and the studies found loose sands and gravels in its foundation that could give way in a strong earthquake, with an estimated annual failure risk of 1 in 285 against a federal standard of 1 in 10,000. The Corps restricted the pool in late 2006, and from 2007 through 2011 the lake never rose above 632 feet. Later surveys found the risk much lower than first thought, and the lake again reached the spillway in 2017. The bigger change came in May 2025, when the Corps and the irrigation district finished a $135 million project that widened the spillway by 165 feet and built a 10 foot concrete ogee weir across it, adding about 28,000 acre-feet for a total near 112,000. The Corps says the work lifts Porterville's protection from roughly a 50 year flood to a 100 year flood.
Success Lake — frequently asked
What is Success Lake's full pool?
652.5 feet, the crest of the original spillway, where the lake holds about 82,300 acre-feet and covers roughly 2,400 acres. The spillway enlargement finished in 2025 put a 10 foot weir across that spillway. Environmental documents for the project describe gross pool rising from 655.1 to 665.1 feet and storage growing to about 110,000 acre-feet, so the project is designed to hold water well above the old full pool mark.
What is the record high at Success Lake?
In Corps daily records going back to 1995, the highest midnight reading is 657.07 feet on March 15, 2023, with 96,482 acre-feet in storage, about 4.5 feet over the spillway crest. That week water ran over the spillway, the Corps released a daily average of about 9,600 cubic feet per second, and the sheriff ordered evacuations along the Tule River below the dam. The Corps said the water was not close to the top of the dam. The gauge on this page logs readings through the day, so its recent high for 2023 sits a few tenths of a foot above that midnight figure.
What is the record low at Success Lake?
The lowest midnight reading in Corps records since 1995 is 574.69 feet on October 31, 2015, at the end of the long drought, when the lake held only about 2,900 acre-feet. That was below the 577 feet that an EPA review of the dam safety work cited as the level needed to protect the lake's fishery. The 2022 drought low was 583.57 feet on November 1, 2022.
How fast can Success Lake rise?
Very fast. On March 10, 2023 an atmospheric river sent a daily average inflow of 23,278 cubic feet per second into the lake, and it rose from 617.00 feet to 645.48 feet in a single day, adding almost 42,000 acre-feet. Two days later it was over the spillway. Floodwater of more than 6,500 cubic feet per second ran through the spillway construction site that spring, delaying the enlargement project.
Why is Success Lake so low in the fall?
It is an irrigation reservoir as well as a flood control dam. Water stored from spring snowmelt is released all summer to Tule River irrigators, including the Lower Tule River Irrigation District and the Pioneer ditch, and by October or November the lake has bottomed out between about 575 and 597 feet in every year of complete Corps records since 1995. It stays low into winter because the Corps must keep flood space open until the storm season passes.
How does the level affect boat ramps and campgrounds?
High water closes things as often as low water does. When the spillway was sandbagged in 2017, Rocky Hill recreation area and its boat ramp closed and the south ramp off Highway 190 became unusable. The spillway enlargement required relocating two boat ramps to fit the higher pool. Rocky Hill campground, Bartlett Park and a 1,499 acre wildlife area on the northwest shore are the main public areas.
Who has water rights tied to Success Lake?
Downstream irrigators organized as the Tule River Association, which includes the Lower Tule River, Porterville and Vandalia irrigation districts and Pioneer Water Company, along with the South Tule Independent Ditch Company. A 2007 settlement with the Tule River Indian Tribe quantified the tribe's right at 5,828 acre-feet a year from the South Fork, with room for a reservoir on the reservation. A bill to ratify it reached the Senate floor in 2025.
Other lakes near Success Lake
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
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