Jordan Lake Right Now
Jordan Lake's water level has been falling over the past week. Watershed conditions are in severe drought. Today's forecast calls for sunny.
- 7-day level change
- Down 0.37 feet
- Forecast high
- 77°F
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Overview
B. Everett Jordan Lake is a 13,940-acre reservoir on the Haw River in Chatham County, southwest of Durham and Cary in North Carolina's Piedmont. It was impounded in the early 1980s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Haw River and New Hope Creek, a project prompted by devastating downstream flooding in 1945 and named for U.S. Senator B. Everett Jordan.
With about 180 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth near 38 feet, Jordan Lake has two distinct arms — the fast-flushing Haw River arm and the slower New Hope arm — and averages only about 14 feet deep. Operated for flood control, water supply, water quality, recreation, and wildlife, it is surrounded by the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area and extensive game lands, and it hosts one of the largest summer bald eagle populations in the eastern United States.
The lake is a productive fishery for largemouth bass, crappie, catfish, and white perch, and a major recreation destination for the Triangle, with heavy boating, camping, and swimming use. Fisheries are managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and numerous state park access areas, ramps, and beaches serve the lake.
Water levels on Jordan Lake are managed by the Corps of Engineers around a normal conservation pool of 216 feet above mean sea level (NGVD29), with a flood-control pool extending to about 240 feet. Because it drains a large, developed Piedmont watershed, levels can rise sharply after storms and are held for flood storage, so monitoring current lake levels is helpful for boating, fishing, and shoreline activities.
Jordan Lake is a 13,940-acre reservoir on the Haw River and New Hope Creek managed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.