Drought causing low lake levels across the Triad

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Amid the drought, area lakes are in desperate need of water. Some are down at least a foot. We're in one of the worst droughts in more than a decade.

[00:00:08]WFM Y News 2's Amber Lake checked on the levels across the Triad.

[00:00:14]The clouds are rolling in, but will that expected rain over the next few days be enough to fill up the lakes that we have in our area? Believe it or not, the boaters are not the only ones impacted by low water levels. At Greensboro City Lakes, the water is noticeably lower than normal. They're not dressed I mean, they're a little low. We are we're all three of the other city lakes Higgins, Brandt, and Townsend are a little low varying degrees depending on the lake, of course, but we're still recreating.

[00:00:39]We're still utilizing it for our drinking water. We're still able to access the lakes no problem.

[00:00:45]>> According to the city, Lake Brandt sits about 8 in low. Lake Townsend is down roughly 16 in and Lake Higgins is down roughly 6 in.

[00:00:54]And Lake Outside of Greensboro, conditions look even worse in some places. High Point City Lake Park is down about 2 and 1/2 ft. O'Calah Lake is nearly 4 in low. At High Rock Lake, neighbors say the water has dropped nearly 4 ft leaving some unable to put their boats in the water. Same thing at Baden Lake. This video shows boat ramps sitting nearly dry with water levels down around 6 ft.

[00:01:18]Fishermen at Greensboro's lakes say the lower water levels are also changing where fish are gathering. Cuz they're bringing them closer to the closer to here and to the fishing. They're trying to go down like almost down to the bottom of the water to get cooler. So, being so hot, they're not really staying up on top.

[00:01:35]Greensboro officials say despite the lower water levels, the lakes remain safe for recreation heading into the holiday weekend. Also, we reached out to Duke Energy because they keep an eye on some of the lakes and reservoirs in our area. They said while the drought has been bad, the water levels are low.

[00:01:49]Those water levels just aren't as bad as they are in places like Charlotte and Raleigh. Reporting from Greensboro, Amber Lake, WFM Y News 2.