Waconda Lake (Glen Elder) Water Level
Waconda Lake (Glen Elder) is at 1,456.91 ft today (Oct 31), 1.31 ft above its 1,455.6 ft full pool, up 0.03 ft this week.
Kansas · Solomon River
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Water level history
About Waconda Lake (Glen Elder)
Waconda Lake (Glen Elder) is a reservoir on the Solomon River in Kansas, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 1455.6 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Waconda Lake (Glen Elder)'s water level
Waconda Lake is a Bureau of Reclamation reservoir on the Solomon River, held back by Glen Elder Dam just west of the town of Glen Elder in Mitchell and Osborne counties. The argument for building it was settled by the flood of 1951, which local histories call the greatest recorded flood in the Solomon Valley. Reclamation started work in November 1964, closed the dam in October 1967, and lists construction as finished in January 1969. The earthfill embankment runs 15,275 feet and stands 115 feet above the streambed, and its 644 foot concrete spillway carries twelve radial gates rated at 264,500 cubic feet per second. At the top of conservation pool, 1455.6 feet, the lake covers 12,602 acres with roughly 100 miles of shoreline. Above that sits flood storage to 1488.3 feet, where the water would spread across about 33,700 acres. The drainage above the dam is 5,076 square miles, though Reclamation counts only 2,559 of them as contributing sediment.
The level you see is mostly a story about rain on the Solomon basin. Reclamation's daily record shows the lake took years to fill after closure, sitting near 1443 feet as late as 1972 and first passing conservation pool in 1973. The high mark came in the summer of 1993, when the lake climbed from about 1461 feet at the end of June to 1487.02 feet on July 29, about 31 feet above conservation pool and only 1.3 feet short of the top of the flood pool. It stayed above 1480 feet into late September. Smaller flood years show up as 1471.3 feet in April 1987, 1467.3 feet in June 2011 and 1466.0 feet in August 2019. The gauge panel on this page covers only about 2020 onward, so none of those peaks appear in it. Between floods, outlet works rated at about 4,000 cubic feet per second at conservation pool let the reservoir draw back down to normal.
Dry years are gentler here than at many western Kansas reservoirs. The conservation pool supplies Beloit and three rural water districts, and although Glen Elder Irrigation District No. 8 was approved in 1976, Reclamation says irrigation from the lake is not yet authorized and KDWPT notes the district was never fully established, so demand stays low and the level relatively stable. The lowest reading since first filling is 1446.18 feet on December 19, 2006. The most recent dry spell kept the lake below conservation pool from late June 2022 until October 1, 2026, bottoming at 1448.74 feet on October 30, 2024 in Reclamation's data, before rain pushed it up more than three feet in a few days to about 1457 feet. Low water hits the creek arm ramps first: with the lake several feet down, KDWPT has listed Granite Creek, North Fork River, Carr Creek and Walnut Creek as unusable and Boller Point as shallow draft only. Zebra mussels are confirmed in the lake.
Waconda Lake (Glen Elder) — frequently asked
What is Waconda Lake's full pool elevation?
The top of conservation pool is 1455.6 feet, where the lake covers about 12,602 acres with roughly 100 miles of shoreline. That is the normal target. Everything from 1455.6 up to 1488.3 feet is flood control space, and the dam's maximum allowable water surface is 1492.9 feet, with the crest at 1500 feet. Sedimentation surveys found about 9.3 percent of the original storage below 1455.6 feet had filled with sediment by 2001.
What is the record high level at Waconda Lake?
1487.02 feet on July 29, 1993, in Reclamation's daily record. The lake rose roughly 25 feet in July that year, from about 1462 feet in early July to within 1.3 feet of the top of the flood pool, and it was still above 1480 feet in late September as stored flood water was released. No other year since the dam closed has come within 15 feet of that mark.
What is the lowest Waconda Lake has been?
Once the reservoir first filled in 1973, the low point in Reclamation's daily record is 1446.18 feet on December 19, 2006, about 9.4 feet below conservation pool. The mid 1980s also dipped below 1449 feet, reaching 1448.90 feet in December 1984. Readings from 1967 through 1972 are lower still, but those reflect the lake filling for the first time, not drought.
Why was Waconda Lake low from 2022 to 2026?
Dry years on the Solomon basin. The lake last sat at conservation pool in late June 2022, fell to about 1450 feet by November 2022 and stayed there through 2023. Its lowest point in that stretch was 1448.74 feet on October 30, 2024. In early December 2025 KDWPT reported it 4.5 feet low and said several significant rains would be needed to recover.
When did Waconda Lake refill?
Rain at the end of September 2026 did it quickly. The lake was at 1453.83 feet on September 30, crossed conservation pool on October 1, and reached about 1456.9 feet by October 3, holding near that level through mid October. It was the first time above 1455.6 feet since June 2022. A June rise earlier in 2026 had brought it to about 1454.9 feet before it slid back over the summer.
What happened to Waconda Spring?
The spring that gave the lake its name lies beneath it. Plains tribes held it sacred and left offerings there, and Zebulon Pike visited in 1806. A stone sanitarium begun in 1884 became a health spa that the Abrahams and Bingesser families ran until 1964. The buildings were razed and the rubble dumped into the spring pool before the valley filled. A replica stands in Glen Elder State Park.
How is the fishing at Waconda Lake?
White bass are the strength. In KDWPT's sampling based forecast for Glen Elder, white bass over nine inches rate good with the highest density of any species, and channel catfish also rate good. Walleye over 15 inches rate only fair despite heavy stocking, including 3 million fry in April 2025, and crappie rate poor. Walleye must be 18 inches to keep, and smallmouth bass 21 inches.
Other lakes near Waconda Lake (Glen Elder)
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