Water Level Still Down By 4 Feet At Lake Of The Ozarks, As Flood Watch Looms

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — "There’s so many events happening but a lot of people can’t participate because the lake is so low."

That's the complaint a LakeExpo reader recently sent-in. He lives on the 5 Mile Marker of the Niangua Arm, which tends to have shallower water and broader banks, so he acknowledged that in his ten years at the Lake, this is fairly normal.

The Lake level is currently around 656 feet of elevation; the summer normal level is between 659 and 660. Ameren draws down the Lake level in the winter, in anticipation of heavy spring rains... and the next round of those rains is expected to arrive this weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch from April 18 – 20 for the Lake area and a large swath of Missouri, expecting up to seven inches of rain in some areas. Ameren, which operates Bagnell Dam, expects to average 9,000 sfd of discharge through the dam over the weekend. The company is targeting a water level below 657.5 feet by next week.

An Ameren spokesperson said in the company's daily report, "We’re going to maintain margin for spring rains until we see that we have a good dry spell coming up, and then we’ll trend back up to 659 again by mid-May."