Rhine Water Levels

[arteest65]

I have been trying to find a table or chart that shows the historical highs, lows and average water levels of the Rhine by month. I have been following many of the posts about delayed or cancelled excursions in June due to the flooded river, necessitating docking elsewhere and using buses. We are considering a cruise in May or June of next year. Anyone know a source for the river levels? I have tried Google etc, but nothing seems to come up except current conditions and complaints.

[ingo_e]

I have them, Not just Charts but visualisied. ;) Here are the instructions

 

http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/historical-water-level-1901-2012

[newlondon]

arteest65, Love your post and the hope that any of us will be able to tell you water levels next year. If we could we would be playing the lottery. Predicting is impossible and all one can do is hope. My advice, however, would be to wait until mid-summer as that should eliminate the high water problem. No guaranty, though, about low water. Less likely in these climate conditions-mbg.

[arteest65]

I have them, Not just Charts but visualisied. ;) Here are the instructions

 

http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/historical-water-level-1901-2012

 

Thank you for this information! I can tell that it was/is a labor of love to do that!

[arteest65]

arteest65, Love your post and the hope that any of us will be able to tell you water levels next year. If we could we would be playing the lottery. Predicting is impossible and all one can do is hope. My advice, however, would be to wait until mid-summer as that should eliminate the high water problem. No guaranty, though, about low water. Less likely in these climate conditions-mbg.

 

We are coming to that conclusion ourselves. It is very interesting that the high levels make it difficult to get under the bridges and low levels get stuck in the muck...even thought the draught of the ships is only about 1.5 feet!

[Mark_T]

...even thought the draught of the ships is only about 1.5 feet!

 

I think that should be around 1.5m not feet :)

[arteest65]

I think that should be around 1.5m not feet :)

 

Much obliged! You are correct! Thanks

[notamermaid]

Hello,

 

contrary to last year the water levels on the Rhine are very low. It has not rained substantially in weeks. A shallow gravel bank stopped a tank barge near Braubach in the Middle Rhine Valley last night. The Rhine was closed for all traffic as of 8 am this morning. There is a backlog of ships waiting to sail now of course. As there is no big damage to the ship authorities have said that the tanker will be freed during the course of this morning.

 

Let us hope for more rain.

 

notamermaid

 

Temperature 46 F, stormy, rain forecast.

[notamermaid]

Update:

 

The tank barge has already been freed of the gravel bank.

 

notamermaid

[IT industry vet]

Hello notamermaid (or people who are on a Rhine cruise):

 

Do the water levels on the Rhine continue to seem low? We will be on a Rhine cruise starting in the middle of May. We were on a Danube cruise last year and were lucky to miss most of the flooding. I'm hoping that we won't be impacted by low water conditions this year!

 

Thank you.

[notamermaid]

Hello IT industry vet,

 

the Rhine water level has risen since my last post. We have finally had more than a drop of rain!

 

The Rhine is still low but I have not heard of any problems. As of now happy cruising (almost) guaranteed.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

[pinotlover]

The Rhine gets its start from Lake Constance, which is largely feed by the snow in the Alps. As soon as the great run off starts, a lack of water in the Rhine is rarely a problem.;) You'll be fine in June!

[HDS]

Notamermaid, I appreciate your posts. Do you have any information you have about the Elbe water levels? We are booked to "cruise" from Prague to Berlin at the end of June and hope there has been sufficient rain in the headwaters to float the boats.

[notamermaid]

Hello HDS,

 

Thank you.

Notamermaid, I appreciate your posts. Do you have any information you have about the Elbe water levels? We are booked to "cruise" from Prague to Berlin at the end of June and hope there has been sufficient rain in the headwaters to float the boats.

 

I am not familiar with situation on the Elbe, although I can say that the Elbe has below average water levels at the moment.

 

It is impossible to predict the water levels for June. Two days of heavy rain throughout the East of Germany could change the situation a lot. No way of knowing what will be in a months time.

 

ingo_e has provided a website: http://www.rivercruiseinfo.com/

with lots of useful information.

 

Other than that this is a good site in German: http://www.wetteronline.de/pegelstaende?gid=SAC

 

The link goes to the region of Saxony weather forecast.

 

Good graphics, the map gives you the deviation from the mean water level (Flusspegel or Pegel or Pegelstand in the German language), the more green means the more below average, the more red means the more above average. Easy to follow even if you are not fluent in German and the weather icons are, of course, self-explanatory. :)

 

The page is updated regularly.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

notamermaid

[Got2Cruise]

Thanks for the update. I'm hoping for a stress free year on the rivers for all

[steamboats]

The Rhine gets its start from Lake Constance, which is largely feed by the snow in the Alps. As soon as the great run off starts, a lack of water in the Rhine is rarely a problem.;) You'll be fine in June!

 

But we didn´t have much snow this year either! It was a very dry and warm winter.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

Notamermaid, I appreciate your posts. Do you have any information you have about the Elbe water levels? We are booked to "cruise" from Prague to Berlin at the end of June and hope there has been sufficient rain in the headwaters to float the boats.

 

The Elbe river is a bit tricky. There are no locks on the German side and the Czechs do prefer to keep their water. The water level can change very quickly.

 

Right now all rivers are pretty low although we had a little rain over the last week. No one can tell you how it will be in June (on any of the rivers).

 

steamboats

[HDS]

Thank you both, Steamboats and Notamermaid, for your information. I'm well aware of the vagaries of meteorology and don't expect guarrantees of rainfall or water levels a month, or even a week, ahead.

However Australian mainstream media does not report details of weather in Europe unless it is catastrophic. Your report of a warm winter and little snow (unlike 2013) hence low water levels, is valuable and the website recommended by Notamermaid is self-explanatory. I will be able to follow the Elbe levels and steel myself to the worst case scenario of an immobile floating hotel and bus trips to our "ports". And hope for enough rain to float the boats but not so much that the farmers are distressed.

We have time post cruise in Germany to return to places we want to see again. All of the cruise is within a day's travel of Berlin.

[IT industry vet]

Thank you, pinotlover and notamermaid, for the reassurance about the Rhine.