Level of the Lake
updated 1:00 PM EDT

What 355.62 ft means on Lake Murray

We haven’t compiled ramp minimums for Lake Murray yet.

If you run a ramp or marina here and know a ramp’s lowest usable level, please send it to contact@handhewn.works. The level ranges and NWS stages below still apply.

What each level means

Approximate. Based on published thresholds (ramp minimums, full pool, spillway, records), but every cove is different.

  1. Above full pondabove 360.00 ft

    Above 360 ft Dominion is passing flood flows through the Saluda spillway; the April 1936 flood peaked at 361.4 ft.

  2. At the top of the pool358.00–360.00 ft

    Above the normal summer target; expect higher releases into the lower Saluda.

  3. Normal operating range354.00–358.00 ftnow · 355.62 ft

    Docks, marinas, and ramps in good shape. Summer target is 358 ft; winter drawdown bottoms near 354.

  4. Below winter pool350.00–354.00 ft

    Shallow coves and upper-lake ramps start feeling it; sandbars and shoals emerge upstream of Dreher Island.

  5. Deep drawdown345.00–350.00 ft

    Widespread dock strandings and ramp closures, last seen in the 2019 drawdown (349.87 ft) and the 2006 drought (348.00 ft).

  6. Extreme drawdownbelow 345.00 ft

    Approaching the modern low of 344.73 ft (the Oct 1990 and Oct 1996 deep drawdowns). Before 1960 the lake ran lower than that on more than 5,000 days, down to a deliberate wartime drawdown of 321.16 ft in December 1941.

NWS flood stages for the lake

NWS judges flooding on Lake Murray by the lake’s own level at gauge IRMS1. Its action stage (359.00 ft) is within a foot of full pool (360.00 ft), where the lake is just full, so the ladder shows full pool instead.

Major flood365.00 ftModerate flood363.00 ftMinor flood360.00 ft348.00 ftnow · 355.62 ft

now = lake gauge · 1:00 PM EDT