Live · updated daily
Lake Kinneret Water Level
The Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest freshwater reservoir, measured by the Israel Water Authority.
-213.41 mbelow sea level · 2026-09-10
Fullness
24.1%
4.61 m from full (-208.8 m)
Change vs previous reading
-1.0 cm
Falling since the last reading
Against a year earlier
-0.53 m
-212.88 m on 2025-09-10
Season
Dry ☀️
The lake rises December through April
Right now
Where the lake sits between the lines
The scale runs from the black line at -214.87 m, where pumping has to stop, up to the upper red line at -208.8 m, where the lake counts as full. Today's reading is -213.41 m.
Fullness
4.61 m from full (-208.8 m)
24.1%
The dark tick on the track is the lower red line at -213 m. Today's reading is 0.41 m below it.
The series
Every reading, four ways
Four ranges: 90 days and one year reading by reading, then ten years and the whole record from the first reading of each month. Hover the line for an exact figure.
Hover the chart for exact readings
Off this scale: full (upper red line) at -208.8 m. Switch to a longer range to see it.
Recent readings
| Date | Level (m) | Change (cm) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-10 | -213.410 | -1.0 |
| 2026-09-09 | -213.400 | -3.5 |
| 2026-09-06 | -213.365 | -4.0 |
| 2026-09-03 | -213.325 | -1.5 |
| 2026-09-02 | -213.310 | -1.0 |
| 2026-09-01 | -213.300 | -1.0 |
| 2026-08-31 | -213.290 | -1.0 |
| 2026-08-30 | -213.280 | -1.5 |
| 2026-08-29 | -213.265 | -1.0 |
| 2026-08-28 | -213.255 | -1.0 |
| 2026-08-27 | -213.245 | -0.5 |
| 2026-08-26 | -213.240 |
Source: Israel Water Authority via data.gov.il (live)
What the lines mean
- Upper red line (-208.8 m): the lake is full; the Degania dam may be opened to prevent flooding.
- Lower red line (-213 m): below this, salinity rises and the ecosystem starts to suffer.
- Black line (-214.87 m): pumping becomes physically impossible without lasting damage.
All three are management marks rather than physical features. The gap between the black line and the upper red line is 6.07 m, and that is the entire working range of the lake.
What the data shows
What 60 winters of readings show
Computed from all 11,329 readings the Water Authority has published since 1966, as they stood on 10 September 2026. Each finding says how it was counted, and the tables behind them can be downloaded from the data page.
The headline
0.94 m
gain in the winter of 2025/26
The winter of 2025/26 lifted the lake 0.94 m, the 42nd largest gain of 60 winters on record.
From -213.44 m on 4 December 2025 to -212.51 m on 3 May 2026: a middling winter since 1966. The strongest was the winter of 2002/03 at 4.70 m; the weakest was the winter of 2024/25 at 0.18 m.
How it is counted. Winter gain is the highest reading between 1 January and 30 June minus the lowest reading between 1 October and the end of February, computed for every hydrological year from every reading the Water Authority has published.
- 02
10th lowest
for this date, of 61 years
Today's reading is the 10th lowest for early September in 61 years.
Against the reading nearest 10 September in every other year of the record, -213.41 m ranks 10th from the bottom. The lowest for this time of year was -214.42 m in 2001; the highest -209.19 m in 1969.
lowest -214.42 m (2001)highest -209.19 m (1969) How it is counted. One reading per year, the one closest to 10 September and within ten days of it. Years with no reading that close are left out.
- 03
15 of 60
years below the lower red line
The lake has fallen below the lower red line in 15 of the 60 years on record, every one of them since 2000.
1999/00, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2024/25, 2025/26. It crossed the black line, where pumping must stop, once: -214.87 m on 25 November 2001.
fell below the lower red linestayed above it How it is counted. A year counts if any reading inside it, 1 October to 30 September, was at or below -213 m.
- 04
1993
the last year it filled
The lake last reached the upper red line in 1993.
-208.80 m on 18 May 1993. It has touched or passed the full mark in 6 of 60 years: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1988, 1992, 1993. The highest reading in the file is -208.20 m, on 27 January 1969.
Record, 19696.67 mLast full, 19936.07 mToday1.46 mMeasured from the black line at -214.87 m. How it is counted. Full is -208.8 m, the upper red line. A year counts if any reading inside it reached that level.
- 05
-31 cm
in the last 30 days
The lake has fallen 31 cm in the last 30 days.
-213.10 m on 11 August 2026 to -213.41 m on 10 September 2026. At that pace it reaches the black line (-214.87 m) in about 141 days. A projection, not a forecast: the direction reverses every autumn and spring.
1 June 202610 September 2026 How it is counted. Straight-line pace over the trailing thirty days of readings, extended until it meets the next management line.
Winter gain
Every winter since 1966/67, by how much it filled the lake
The one number that decides a year. A strong winter lifts the lake three or four metres; a failed one, a few centimetres. 2002/03 gained 4.70 m and 2024/25 gained 0.18 m, and the whole table is below.
Winter gain by year, in centimetres
Each bar is labelled by the year its spring falls in, so 2026 is the rise from late 2025 to spring 2026. Hover any bar.
Strongest
- 2002/034.70 m
- 1991/924.01 m
- 2018/193.48 m
- 2019/203.01 m
- 1979/802.87 m
Weakest
- 2024/250.18 m
- 1978/790.31 m
- 1988/890.32 m
- 2013/140.40 m
- 2007/080.59 m
The full table, one row per winter with the dates and levels behind each figure: kinneret-winter-gain.csv. Free to reuse with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). The readings themselves: monthly since 1966 and the last 400 days.
The record
The full range since 1966
Across all 11,329 readings back to 1966, the lake has run from -208.20 m down to -214.87 m: a span of 6.67 m between the two.
- Highest
- -208.20 m
- 1969-01-27
- Lowest
- -214.87 m
- 2001-11-25
- Today against that low
- 1.46 m
- above the lowest reading in the series
The cycle
When the lake rises
The Kinneret has one filling season. Rain over the Galilee and the Golan runs into the Jordan River, the Jordan runs into the lake, and the level climbs from roughly December to roughly April. The rest of the year is evaporation and pumping, so the summer half of the curve points down. Today's reading falls in the dry half of that cycle.
It is why the ranges on the chart above answer different questions. Ninety days shows you one stretch of one season. Ten years shows you whether the winters have been keeping up with the pumping.
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More data
The rest of the numbers
The same treatment applied to the population, the cost of a week's shopping, and the calendar.
Frequently asked questions
What is the current water level of Lake Kinneret?+
The current level is shown at the top of this page, updated daily from the Israel Water Authority's official measurements published on data.gov.il.
What is considered a full Kinneret?+
The lake is considered full at 208.80 meters below sea level, the upper red line. Above it, the Degania dam may be opened to prevent flooding.
Why does the water level matter?+
The Kinneret is Israel's largest freshwater reservoir. Its level affects drinking water, agriculture, the lake's ecology, and it is a national weather barometer that Israelis follow every winter.
What happens if the level drops too low?+
Below the lower red line (213 meters below sea level) salinity rises and the ecosystem suffers. Below the black line (214.87 m) pumping becomes physically impossible without lasting damage.
When does the Kinneret rise?+
The level rises during the winter rainy season, roughly December through April, fed by the Jordan River and rainfall in the north. It falls through the dry summer months.
Is the Kinneret the same as the Sea of Galilee?+
Yes. Lake Kinneret is the Hebrew name for the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth.
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