Water Levels

• Lake elevation — how high the lake surface sits above sea level, shown in meters (the official unit used by the Lake of the Woods Control Board) and in feet.
• Storage — roughly how full a lake is within its normal operating range for this time of year. Rainy Lake and Namakan/Kabetogama are regulated reservoirs, held within a seasonal target band known as a “rule curve.”
• Streamflow (cfs) — the volume of water moving past a river gauge, in cubic feet per second. Higher numbers mean faster, fuller rivers.
• Gage height — the height of the water at the river gauge itself, a local reference point rather than a sea-level elevation.

Levels here aren’t just weather. Rainy Lake and the Namakan lakes are regulated reservoirs, guided through the year by an international “rule curve” that the Lake of the Woods Control Board follows.

Spring snowmelt fills the system and the lakes climb. Through summer they’re held near the top of that range for boating, fishing, and the resorts and houseboats that depend on them. Come fall, operators begin drawing the lakes down to open up storage room, and winter settles in toward the low end — making space for next spring’s melt. The rivers, meanwhile, run highest during the spring freshet and after heavy summer rains.

Lake levels are published once a day by the Lake of the Woods Control Board, the body that manages water levels across the Rainy–Lake of the Woods basin. River flows come live from the U.S. Geological Survey, updated roughly every hour:

• Rainy River at International Falls
• Rainy River at Manitou Rapids
• Littlefork River at Littlefork
• Bigfork River at Big Falls

For the latest forecast, see the National Weather Service forecast for International Falls.

Lake Kabetogama is part of the Namakan reservoir system — Namakan, Kabetogama, Sand Point, Crane, and Little Vermilion lakes — which the dams hold to a common level.