Kootenay Lake level today
The Water Survey of Canada gauge at Queens Bay reads 531.34 m right now.
Updated Pacific Time.
Today's level at Queens Bay
The gauge at KOOTENAY LAKE AT QUEENS BAY reads 531.34 m right now. It is down 0 cm over the last 24 hours.
The chart plots the gauge’s last 288 readings, about 5 minutes apart, so it covers roughly the last day. The vertical axis is metres and the horizontal axis is Pacific Time.
Station 08NH064, KOOTENAY LAKE AT QUEENS BAY. The Water Survey of Canada real-time gauge the lake-level page reads from; verified against the province's hydrometric station record. Verified on 2026-09-22 against the province’s hydrometric station record.
This year against the typical range
This page holds a day of readings, not a multi-year history, so it cannot say where today sits against a typical year on its own. FortisBC’s own lake-level tool keeps that longer record: a 31-day history plus yearly minimums and maximums back to 1973.
For a fixed reference point, Wikipedia’s infobox for the lake lists its surface elevation as 532 m; the ILEC World Lake Database lists 529.7 m for the same figure. Both are long-run figures, not today’s reading, and the two sources do not quite agree.
Elevation figures verified 2026-09-22 against Wikipedia and ILEC. Verified on 2026-09-22 against FortisBC’s lake level page.
Why the lake rises in June
Kootenay Lake’s level typically climbs through spring as snowmelt off its 45,584 km² catchment — the freshet — reaches the lake faster than the regulated outflow at the Corra Linn Dam can release it. The dam is operated under the 1938 order that sets the lake’s maximum level, described below.
Catchment area from ILEC, verified 2026-09-22: see the ILEC World Lake Database record.
Who controls the level
"The Board is responsible for the supervision of the operation of the Corra Linn Dam and ensures that conditions set for Kootenay Lake are maintained." The International Joint Commission's 1938 Order of Approval sets the maximum lake level through operation of the Corra Linn Dam on the outflowing Kootenay River. "The Order does not prescribe a minimum lake elevation."
The dam sits on the lake’s only outflow, the Kootenay River — named as the outflow by both Wikipedia and ILEC. Water leaving through it is the only way the lake’s level falls once the freshet stops adding more than the dam releases.
Verified on 2026-09-22 against the International Joint Commission’s Kootenay Lake page. Outflow verified 2026-09-22 against Wikipedia’s Kootenay Lake article.
Flooding and low water
The 1938 order sets a maximum lake level, but in the IJC’s own words, “the Order does not prescribe a minimum lake elevation.” This page holds no specific flood-stage number, so a dock built close to the water is better tracked against the live reading and the 24-hour change at the top of this page than against a fixed figure.
ILEC records the lake’s residence time — roughly how long it takes to replace the water it holds — at 1.8 years, which is a measure of how slowly the whole lake turns over even while the level at the gauge moves day to day.
Verified on 2026-09-22 against the International Joint Commission’s Kootenay Lake page. Residence time verified 2026-09-22 against the ILEC World Lake Database record.
Common questions
What is the highest the lake has been?
Is Kootenay Lake man made?
Where is the FortisBC chart?
kootenaylake.org is an independent guide published by Delcaro Media in Kitchener, BC. It is not affiliated with Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism, the Kootenay Lake Chamber of Commerce, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit, Western Pacific Marine, BC Parks or any business listed on it.