Medina Lake FAQ
Common questions about the water level, % full, and flood status
What is Medina Lake's current water level?
Medina Lake's current elevation, percent full, and storage in acre-feet are shown live on the Medina Lake Live homepage, sourced directly from USGS gauge 08179500 and updated every 60 seconds.
Is Medina Lake full right now?
It depends on current conditions — check the live percent-full figure on the homepage. Medina Lake is considered full (at conservation pool) at a storage of 254,823 acre-feet, corresponding to a spillway elevation of 1,064.20 ft NGVD29.
How is Medina Lake's percent full calculated?
Percent full is current lake storage in acre-feet divided by the conservation pool capacity of 254,823 acre-feet — the standard way reservoir operators express how full a lake is.
What elevation does Medina Lake spill at?
Medina Lake's spillway sits at an elevation of 1,064.20 ft NGVD29. When the lake's elevation exceeds this, it begins spilling.
How often is Medina Lake's water level data updated?
The dashboard polls USGS and NOAA every 60 seconds, but the underlying gauges themselves sample roughly every 15 minutes and transmit hourly-ish, so the displayed "as of" time reflects the true reading time rather than the poll time.
Where does Medina Lake's inflow come from?
Medina Lake is fed by the Medina River. Three USGS gauges upstream — Patterson Rd, Bandera, and English Crossing — sit on the same river channel one after another, not on separate tributaries, so their flows are shown individually rather than summed. English Crossing, the furthest downstream, is used as the lake-inflow estimate.
What counts as flooding at Medina Lake?
Flood status (no flooding, minor, moderate, or major) comes directly from NOAA's National Water Prediction Service official flood category for the lake, rather than being calculated independently, since NOAA's thresholds already account for local flood-stage criteria.
Where does this Medina Lake data come from, and is it official?
All figures come directly from public USGS Water Services and NOAA NWPS APIs — nothing is hand-entered. Medina Lake Live is an independent, non-commercial hobby project, not affiliated with USGS, NOAA, or any government agency, and all values are provisional and subject to revision. See the About page for more on the methodology.