Durham Reservoirs Dashboard

Durham's two drinking-water reservoirs · updated Aug 23, 10:14 AM 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

Rising
Flat River watershed
Elevation
333.00 ft msl (8.00 ft below full)
Inflow (Flat River)
18.3 gal/s · 24h 8.01 · 7d 2.16
Outflow
9.95 gal/s
Inflow is ~10th percentile for this date (median 112 gal/s, 1925–2025)
latest 30 min agoCurrent

Little River Reservoir

Unknown
Little River watershed
Elevation
342.60 ft msl (12.40 ft below full)
Inflow (Little River)
24.6 gal/s · 24h 33.5 · 7d 25.1
Downstream flow
50.8 gal/s
Inflow is ~37th percentile for this date (median 39.0 gal/s, 1995–2024)
latest 30 min agoCurrent
Combined monitored inflow to Durham reservoirs
42.9 gal/s≈ 3.7 MGD
Lake Michie
18.3 gal/s
Little River Reservoir
24.6 gal/s

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

Durham system demand & supply

⚠ Stage 2 Water Shortage in effect
City of Durham published figures · as of 4 days ago · provisional
Water going out — city demand
Daily demand
33.19 MGD ≈ 384 gal/s
Month-to-date average
31.28 MGD
30-day average
22.90 MGD

Demand (384 gal/s) vs combined monitored inflow (42.9 gal/s): the city is currently using about 341 gal/s more than the monitored rivers are bringing in. Demand is drawn from reservoir storage, not directly from these gauges; ungauged inflows, rainfall, releases, and evaporation are not included.

Reservoir health — days of supply
218total days at the 30-day average demand
Easily accessible (premium)
137 days
Below intake structures
52 days
Emergency storage (Teer Quarry)
29 days

Days of supply is the City's own storage-based estimate. A percent-full figure is not shown because no authoritative storage table is published — see methodology.

Rainfall (month-to-date · year-to-date)
Lake Michie watershed
3.17 in · 23.28 in
Little River watershed
2.84 in · 17.06 in

U.S. Drought Monitor · Durham County, NC

map dated 2026-08-18 (5 days ago) · updated weekly
D2 — Severe Droughtcovers 6% of the county · 100% is in D1 Moderate Drought or worse
Drought Severity & Coverage Index (DSCI): 206 / 500 · ▼ improving over the past 4 weeks (-176 DSCI)
U.S. Drought Monitor map of North Carolina dated 2026-08-18. Durham County, NC is in D2 Severe Drought, covering 6% 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
2026-08-180%100%100%6%0%0%206
2026-08-110%100%100%6%0%0%206
2026-08-040%100%100%18%0%0%218
2026-07-280%100%100%18%0%0%218
2026-07-210%100%100%100%82%0%382
2026-07-140%100%100%100%100%34%434
2026-07-070%100%100%100%100%57%457
2026-06-300%100%100%100%100%96%496

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.