Lake Champlain Right Now
Lake Champlain's water level has been falling over the past week. Watershed conditions are abnormally dry. Today's forecast calls for slight chance rain showers with a high around 61°F.
- 7-day level change
- Down 0.16 feet
- Water temperature
- 55°F
USGS · 2 hours ago
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Overview
Lake Champlain is a large natural lake on the New York-Vermont border (with a small Quebec portion), covering on the order of 435 square miles with roughly 587 miles of shoreline. It drains north through the Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence and is a defining water body of the Champlain Valley rather than a federal storage reservoir. The lake stretches more than 100 miles north-south between the Adirondack and Green Mountain fronts.
Average depth is roughly 64 feet with a maximum near 400 feet in the main stem. Broad open water, rocky points, islands, and extensive wetlands create diverse habitat between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains. Broad main-lake basins, the Inland Sea, and island archipelagos create distinct fishing and boating regions.
The lake supports major recreational boating and fishing for bass, walleye, salmon, lake trout, and other species managed by New York and Vermont fish and wildlife agencies. State parks, marinas, and lake-town waterfronts provide public access on both shores. Ferry routes, state parks, and historic waterfronts from Whitehall to Rouses Point frame New York access.
Water levels respond to precipitation, snowmelt, and Richelieu River outflow rather than a classic full/winter/flood pool rule curve. Seasonal highs and lows affect marinas, wetlands, and flood-prone shores, so monitoring current lake levels is important for boating safety and shoreline planning. Spring snowmelt and Richelieu outflow capacity are the main drivers of high-water seasons on both shores.
Lake Champlain is a 278,400-acre natural lake with management context from International / interstate coordination; no single storage dam on the main lake. Levels respond to rainfall, runoff, and natural inflows and outflows.