Rend Lake lake and shoreline

Rend Lake Water Level

Illinois

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Current level

No public live gage

USGS, the Corps, and other public feeds do not publish a pool elevation for this lake. Conservation-pool and datum values from the catalog may still appear below.

Since last reading

No prior reading

Change appears once we have two daily level summaries on file.

Prior reading unavailable

7-day change

Insufficient 7-day history

7-day change is shown once at least a week of daily data is on file.

Insufficient history for 7-day trend

Not enough readings in this period

Need at least two readings in the last 7 days for a trend preview.

30-day change

Insufficient 30-day history

30-day change is shown once 30 days of daily history are available.

Not enough readings in this period

Need at least two readings in the last 30 days for a trend preview.

Water Level History

Elevation (ft) NGVD29 · MSL

No live elevation history

This lake has no public live pool gage, so Lake Insights cannot plot a water-level history. Published conservation or full-pool elevation may still appear in the panels below.

Level status

Summary updating

This comparison needs the current level and full pool. We use the live feed when present, otherwise the latest daily summary when it includes a pool comparison.

DatumElevation referenced to National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.
NGVD29
Elevation reference
MSL
Source
Not available

Reference levels

  • Full pool405 ft

Watershed drought

Abnormally Dry

Abnormally dry (D0), not official drought.

Severity

NoneExtreme
Trend
Worsening

Watershed drought conditions

Franklin County, IL

Abnormally Dry

Abnormally Dry. The surrounding county is abnormally dry, which is not official drought.. Trend: Worsening compared with last week. Official drought no

Severity

NoneExtreme

Weekly trend

Worsening

Compared with last week

Official drought

No

Current conditions are classified as Abnormally Dry (D0), which is not considered official drought.

U.S. Drought Monitor · map date Sep 8, 2026. Updated weekly. droughtmonitor.unl.eduView drought map for Franklin County, IL

Daily level summary

Daily history updating

Daily rows will appear here as level summaries are recorded for this lake.

Common questions about Rend Lake’s water level

  • Lake Insights does not currently have a live gauge elevation for Rend Lake. No public USGS or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pool gage is published for this lake, so a current Rend Lake lake level is not shown.

  • Rend Lake does not have a public live pool-elevation feed. Lake Insights only plots a current elevation when an official agency gage (USGS, Corps, NOAA, or a verified operator feed) is available.

  • Full pool for Rend Lake is 405 ft — the normal conservation target elevation when the reservoir is at its designed summer or operating pool.

Lake level glossary

Definitions for pool targets, datums, and how elevation readings are labeled.

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