Webster Reservoir Water Level
Webster Reservoir is at 1,865.51 ft today (Oct 31), 26.94 ft below its 1,892.45 ft full pool, down 0.02 ft this week.
Kansas · South Fork Solomon River
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Water level history
About Webster Reservoir
Webster Reservoir is a reservoir on the South Fork Solomon River in Kansas, operated by U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Its full summer pool sits at 1892.45 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Webster Reservoir's water level
Webster Reservoir sits on the South Fork Solomon River about eight miles west of Stockton, in Rooks County, and it covers the old farm town of Webster. The idea goes back to a 1933 letter in the Rooks County Record from Mrs. Curtis Fry of Stockton asking why nobody dammed the river. The July 1951 flood, which produced a record peak of 55,200 cubic feet per second at the Webster site, pushed the project forward. Earthwork began on March 14, 1953, the outlet was plugged to start storing water on May 3, 1956, and fourteen surrounding towns held a dedication that October. Reclamation built it under the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program to serve Webster Irrigation District No. 4, which today has service available to 8,537 acres. Water is released down the river, diverted at Woodston Diversion Dam, and carried east through the Osborne Canal toward Osborne during a contracted season of May 1 through September 30.
The number on the gauge is measured against a conservation pool top of 1,892.45 feet, which holds 76,157 acre-feet. Above that, the exclusive flood pool runs another 31 feet to 1,923.7 feet and adds 183,353 acre-feet of space, and the Corps of Engineers directs how that flood storage is regulated while Reclamation handles irrigation operations. The dam's spillway crest is at 1,884.6 feet, controlled by three radial gates about 33 by 40 feet, rated for 138,000 cubic feet per second. The trouble is supply rather than space. The basin is semiarid, and Reclamation's own 1995 history says that for most of its existence the reservoir had never filled, blaming drought and changing farm practices upstream. Groundwater pumping by junior water right holders above the lake has also cut into the water that reaches it. In 1972, with the South Fork running as low as 700 acre-feet, irrigation deliveries were eliminated entirely.
Recent years show the pattern clearly. Reclamation's daily record shows the lake at or above conservation pool from 1993 through 2000, again in 2009 and 2010, and from 2017 into July 2021. It has fallen almost steadily since. In 2025 the reservoir took in only 4,230 acre-feet, about a fifth of the forecast for a normal year, peaked at 1,867.57 feet on May 9, and ended the year 26.3 feet below conservation pool holding 11,468 acre-feet. No water was released for irrigation that year. Low water also changes the lake for visitors. In summer 2024, with the level near 1,877 feet, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks reported the Old Marina and Morel ramps unusable while Rock Point, Goose Flats and Lakeview stayed open. Webster State Park's 880 acres wrap the shoreline, and state biologists point anglers to the maintained fish attractors and the north and south shore breakwaters for crappie, walleye, white bass and wipers.
Webster Reservoir — frequently asked
What is Webster Reservoir's full pool elevation?
The top of the conservation pool is 1,892.45 feet above sea level, which Reclamation treats as the normal operating level. At that elevation the lake stores 76,157 acre-feet. The flood control pool extends to 1,923.7 feet, for a total of 259,510 acre-feet, and the maximum allowable water surface during a design flood is 1,938 feet, six feet below the 1,944 foot crest of the dam.
Why is Webster Reservoir so low?
Inflow has been far below normal. In 2025 the lake took in 4,230 acre-feet, about 20 percent of the most probable forecast, and lost more than that to evaporation, 5,370 acre-feet. Reclamation made no irrigation releases at all that year, so the decline came from evaporation and lack of runoff, not from drawdown. Reclamation histories also point to upstream groundwater pumping and changing farm practices that reduce flows in the South Fork.
What is the highest level Webster Reservoir has reached?
In Reclamation's online daily record, which runs from 1976 with a gap from 1977 to 1985, the highest reading is 1,907.04 feet on June 5, 1995, about 14.6 feet above conservation pool. The 1993 flood had already raised the lake from about 1,864 feet in January to 1,904.32 feet that October. Reclamation's history says the 1993 water and the rain two years later forced the spillway gates open for the first time. The recent high in the gauge widget covers only about the last five years, so it shows the much smaller 2021 peak.
What is the lowest level on record at Webster Reservoir?
The lowest reading in Reclamation's online daily record, which starts in 1976 and has a gap from 1977 through 1985, is 1,858.73 feet on October 30, 1991, about 33.7 feet below conservation pool. The 2000s drought came close: the lake bottomed at 1,863.64 feet in December 2006, and in August 2006 the state wildlife agency called Webster the most critical of the low lakes in western and northern Kansas, 28 feet below conservation pool.
When will Webster Reservoir refill?
Not soon under normal weather. Reclamation's 2026 operating plan projected the lake at only about 1,875 feet by the end of 2026 even with most probable inflows, and about 1,866 feet under dry conditions. Through early October 2026 the lake has tracked the dry case, staying between roughly 1,865 and 1,867 feet. The last refill came when the lake climbed from about 1,870 feet in early 2016 to above conservation pool in 2017.
What town is under Webster Reservoir?
The original farm town of Webster, which around 1910 had about 200 residents, a bank, a hotel built of chalk limestone blocks, and a daily mail stage to Stockton and Bogue. Reclamation began buying out landowners in 1952, moved houses, businesses and the town cemetery, and left the remaining structures to be submerged. A small new Webster survives on dry land near the old townsite. At conservation pool the old remnants sit about 53 feet underwater.
What fish are in Webster Reservoir?
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks reports crappie, walleye, white bass, wipers, channel catfish and largemouth bass, and rainbow trout are stocked seasonally in the stilling basin below the dam in years when conditions allow. Walleye and largemouth bass carry a 15 inch minimum length and five fish creel limit. Biologists suggest the maintained fish attractors and shoreline breakwaters, and the shallows of Old Marina and Rock Point coves for catfish.
Other lakes near Webster Reservoir
- Wilson LakeKS
- Waconda Lake (Glen Elder)KS
- Big Hill LakeKS
- Tuttle Creek LakeKS
- Cheney ReservoirKS
- Toronto LakeKS
See current levels for all 21 Kansas lakes and reservoirs →
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