Kinneret slips 1.5 cm to -213.715 m, now 0.72 m below the lower red line

Lake Kinneret dropped another 1.5 centimeters this week, settling at -213.715 meters below sea level on 2026-11-05, according to Israel Water Authority data. That reading leaves the lake below its lower red line, the threshold Israel's water managers treat as a warning sign for the country's best-known body of fresh water.

The gap to full capacity is now 4.91 meters. Full is defined by the upper red line at 208.80 meters below sea level. At the other end of the scale, the lake is currently beneath the lower red line of 213 meters, the level at which salinity rises and the ecosystem begins to suffer.

The direction of travel has been consistent. Over the past 30 days the level has moved down 8.0 centimeters, from -213.635 meters on 2026-10-05. Measured against the same point twelve months ago, when the lake stood at -213.305 meters, it is down 41.0 centimeters.

Looking at the same week in recent years puts this autumn's reading in context. The level stood at -213.32 m in 2025, -211.19 m in 2024, -211.53 m in 2023, -210.31 m in 2022 and -210.52 m in 2021.

Where this sits in the record

The series published by the Israel Water Authority on the national open-data portal runs from 1966-09-01 to 2026-11-05, with 11,387 readings in all. Its highest point is -208.20 meters, recorded on 1969-01-27. Its lowest is -214.87 meters, reached on 2001-11-25. Today's reading falls between those extremes, sitting 0.72 meters below the lower red line.

What the red lines mean

Israel manages the Kinneret between two administrative thresholds. The upper red line, 208.80 meters below sea level, marks the point at which the lake is considered full and the Degania dam is opened to prevent flooding around the shore. The lower red line, 213 meters below sea level, is the point below which pumping is restricted. The reason is chemistry: saline springs on the lake bed push salt into the water, and as the volume of fresh water above them shrinks, salinity climbs and the ecosystem deteriorates.

Neither line is a natural feature. Both are policy, drawn by the state to balance the lake's role as a water source against the health of the lake itself. When the level sits below the lower line, as it does now, that balance tilts toward protecting the Kinneret.

The full daily series, with charts back to 1966, is on the Israel.com Kinneret water level tracker, and the raw dataset is published by the Water Authority through data.gov.il.