Durham Reservoirs Dashboard

Durham's two drinking-water reservoirs · updated Oct 24, 4:29 PM ET

Methodology & sources

Source readings from USGS and the City of Durham are provisional and subject to revision. Every value is shown with the time it was observed.

cfsgal/s
7d30d90d

Lake Michie

Falling
Flat River watershed
Elevation
unavailable
Inflow (Flat River)
12.9 gal/s · 24h 14.6 · 7d 13.9
Outflow
22.1 gal/s
Inflow is ~10th percentile for this date (median 112 gal/s, 1926–2026)
latest 45 min agoCurrent

Little River Reservoir

Unknown
Little River watershed
Elevation
unavailable
Inflow (Little River)
1.72 gal/s · 24h 1.88 · 7d 2.60
Downstream flow
4.86 gal/s
Inflow is ~12th percentile for this date (median 28.9 gal/s, 1995–2025)
latest 45 min agoCurrent
Combined monitored inflow to Durham reservoirs
14.7 gal/s≈ 1.3 MGD
Lake Michie
12.9 gal/s
Little River Reservoir
1.72 gal/s

Combined monitored inflow to Durham reservoirs. Excludes ungauged tributaries, rainfall, withdrawals, and evaporation — not a complete water balance.

Durham system demand & supply

The City of Durham Current Data page could not be read. Reservoir metrics above are unaffected.

U.S. Drought Monitor · Durham County, NC

map dated 2026-10-20 (5 days ago) · updated weekly
D2 — Severe Droughtcovers 48% of the county · 100% is in D1 Moderate Drought or worse
Drought Severity & Coverage Index (DSCI): 248 / 500 · → little change over the past 4 weeks (0 DSCI)
U.S. Drought Monitor map of North Carolina dated 2026-10-20. Durham County, NC is in D2 Severe Drought, covering 48% of the county. Full intensity legend and data are in the table below.
Latest NC map (auto-updates weekly) · click to open the interactive version
Weekly percent of county area in each U.S. Drought Monitor category or worse (None, D0, D1, D2, D3, D4) plus the Drought Severity and Coverage Index, most recent first
Week ofNoneD0+D1+D2+D3+D4DSCI
2026-10-200%100%100%48%0%0%248
2026-10-130%100%100%48%0%0%248
2026-10-060%100%100%48%0%0%248
2026-09-290%100%100%48%0%0%248
2026-09-220%100%100%48%0%0%248
2026-09-150%100%100%16%0%0%216
2026-09-080%100%100%6%0%0%206
2026-09-010%100%100%6%0%0%206

Categories are cumulative: each column is the percent of the county in that category or worse, so None + D0 need not sum to 100. D0 Abnormally Dry · D1 Moderate · D2 Severe · D3 Extreme · D4 Exceptional.

Source: U.S. Drought Monitor (NC map), produced by NDMC, USDA, and NOAA. Percentages are county-wide; both reservoirs sit in Durham County, but their watersheds extend into Person and Orange counties.

Raw flows are not adjusted for watershed size and reservoir health is not ranked by inflow. See the methodology page for what can and cannot be compared.