Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

10 minutes ago, Bizziecruzer said:

How would this impact cruises that commence in Amsterdam to Budapest in 12 days time?

As regards the time frame it is difficult to say. In theory we can see a river traffic ban further along the Rhine in Germany over the next week but at this point I would not say so at all. As the wave travels downriver we will see high levels all the way to Cologne in the next five days but the impact is not known, i.e. we cannot know what levels to expect exactly yet. I am afraid I am a bit short of time - busy weekend coming up - so I have not looked further into this. We can reasonably say that river traffic can be mildly impacted all the way into the Netherlands. You are travelling upstream to the confluence with the Main so will not be in the area where we expect the ban tomorrow. You turn East before that. You will also not be delayed at the Rhine locks therefore. However, the Main will carry additional water so there could be some effects for you (locks, bridges). From the Canal onto the Danube - that is so far into the future that we cannot say. It may return to normal by the time you get to the river at Kelheim.

 

If the rain stops Sunday evening, we can hope that the wave has run through the river in 12 to 14 days time. But the authorities do think that the river will remain at a high level for a while albeit not flooding.

 

With a bit more time I will report on the gauges downstream from Kaub. For now I can say that we will see a lot of water in the next week and in the Middle Rhine valley - which you will go through - the level will go up to navigational flood mark I and official mild flooding. So there can be delays.

 

Depending on where your designated ship is now it may not be able to pick you up in Amsterdam and you may be swapped to a different one. It is a very long journey through Europe...

 

Sorry to be vague. I hope it helps. Will be back for a short report later in the evening local time.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Bizziecruzer]

THANKYOU! Enjoy your weekend.

[notamermaid]

52 minutes ago, Bizziecruzer said:

THANKYOU! Enjoy your weekend.

Thank you. Will be at work (which I enjoy) but also having some fun.

 

Forgot to mention that the first bit of waterway from Amsterdam is actually a canal - the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam–Rhine_Canal

 

If you are interested in the whole waterways of Europe, here is a map: https://unece.org/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Time for me to retire for the night. I w ll leave you with the figure for Maxau - 689cm - and the info that the Basel Rhine knee has gone to flood warning level 3 according to the Swiss authorities. The gauge graph has also crossed the line for navigational flood mark II. That is high and river traffic may also face a ban in a section downstream from Basel (Rheinfelden to Kembs) according to the website primenews.ch. But that is not certain yet.

 

750cm at Maxau expected for Saturday 4pm to 6pm.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Back from work, where to begin? Best here I think:

17 hours ago, notamermaid said:

750cm at Maxau expected for Saturday 4pm to 6pm.

The forecast computer was spot on. The gauge went to 750cm at 16:45 local time and is time stamp 17:30 at 754cm. It is not clear yet where we will be tomorrow but a rise to over 800cm looks certain. The peak looks to be tomorrow between 820cm and 830cm. Hopefully, the river will go down again at 10pm tomorrow. When I say hope it is with a sad note as that means that even more water is going to the Danube basin where they are having an abysmal time. SWR news confirms that the river traffic ban is in place. The Neckar river has a traffic ban also.

 

Maxau gauge responsible for the ban around Karlsruhe is here, at Rhine kilometre 362.33:

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

18 hours ago, notamermaid said:

That is high and river traffic may also face a ban in a section downstream from Basel (Rheinfelden to Kembs) according to the website primenews.ch. But that is not certain yet.

The figure is high enough for that but I have not seen it confirmed.

 

Worms is expecting flooding and of course the river is rising all over that section now. The additional problem for them is the Neckar which joins at Mannheim. These are the respective gauges with green being normal and yellow higher than normal, orange worse, red bad and purple really, really bad. You can see the Neckar and its tributaries around Stuttgart being in a bit of a state:

 

 

As Sunday progresses we may seem more river traffic bans.

 

All gauges up to Bonn now show rising levels with Cologne to start soon.

 

For the Rhine authorities call it flooding that happens every two years to every ten years. Where the dots are purple it is up to a 100 year flood.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Clouds are still pushing into Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg from Thuringia and Saxony, increasing and unloading rain before hitting the Alps. So most of the rain is kept out of Rhineland-Palatinate - for now. It will continue to rain tomorrow but of course we cannot say exactly where. For now, the forecast at Maxau still stands for a peak between 820cm and 830cm.

 

For context, Mannheim gauge:

 

Expected level for tomorrow noon local time is 697cm. That is a really fast rise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Next]

Portions of the Rhine are closed to all river traffic.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Next said:

Portions of the Rhine are closed to all river traffic.

Could you tell me please which ones you know about apart from Karlsruhe/Maxau? I reckon Kembs lock.

 

It has not happened at Worms yet, but is likely to happen.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Koblenz has put up its flood defences.

 

Maxau gauge has gone to 827cm and is still rising. Peak expected this evening.

 

notamermaid

 

[Next]

We went as far as Strasbourg and were bussed to Rudesheim. Now sailing north of Rudesheim. River is high.

Edited June 2 by Next

[notamermaid]

Awaiting the peak at Maxau and then focussing on what is happening further downstream.

 

The whole river in Germany has now been put on flood alert.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Next said:

We went as far as Strasbourg and were bussed to Rudesheim. Now sailing north of Rudesheim. River is high.

That is some seriously nifty planning. That way you have overtaken the wave that is currently from Plittersdorf to Mainz (i.e. gauges at or rising to critical levels) and are in the clear.

 

notamermaid

 

[SAmome]

Wow, amazing thread! Not that I understand it! 🙂 I'm sure it's too early to speculate on river levels being too high in Sept (well not sure of anything) but is it fairly safe to say the Basel to Amsterdam route won't have issues with low water levels in Sept?  It's either going to be too high or fine?  Thanks for any perspective you can provide. 

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, SAmome said:

Wow, amazing thread! Not that I understand it! 🙂 I'm sure it's too early to speculate on river levels being too high in Sept (well not sure of anything) but is it fairly safe to say the Basel to Amsterdam route won't have issues with low water levels in Sept?  It's either going to be too high or fine?  Thanks for any perspective you can provide. 

Thank you for finding us here. To keep it short at the moment - we have absolutely no clue as to what the river's levels will be in September. Even if it stops raining and we get a dry June (after tomorrow), July has good prospects now that we have flooding, but September is too far out. I am afraid to say that there has been low water in September and generally autumn is statistically the time for it.

 

The difference between high and low water is that high water normally starts in the Upper Rhine valley (for our purposes here I say Basel to Karlsruhe/Maxau gauge) and can extend far downstream - like it is doing now - but low water always starts in the Rhine Gorge, meaning that is where ships struggle first with too little water under the keel. That is why I quote Kaub gauge, it marks low water best.

 

Most cruises sail without problems but unfortunately we can never give a guarantee far into the future. Conditions can stay fine for months on end but we have had a wet winter so for the second time this year the river is high, in May we got away with it so to speak but this weather pattern this past week has been disastrous for parts of Southern Germany.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Right. Maxau gauge has peaked at 829cm and is now down to 820cm. Current forecast says it is likely to stay above 750cm well into Wednesday.

 

Just seen a report on Ludwigshafen, they expect serious flooding in the low lying areas close to the river, putting defenses up and strengthening dams. The city and Mannheim on the other bank get the Neckar river floods as the confluence is right there. Mannheim is still rising and is on navigational flood mark I. It is forecast to rise to navigational flood mark II during the night which (on paper) means a river traffic ban. If I read the confirmation in the online newspapers I will report it.

 

Worms is still rising and is on navigational flood mark I. Worms is forecast to hit its navigational flood mark II, too.

 

Mainz is also now fully seeing the wave and is on navigational flood mark I.

 

Likewise Kaub.

 

Koblenz will follow suite during the night.

 

So will Andernach.

 

Oberwinter will follow in the morning.

 

Cologne will likely follow tomorrow evening.

 

The Main river is also now carrying a higher volume of water but much of the rain has narrowly avoided the river itself and the Northern tributaries so this will not add that much water to this wave and the river does not go to official flooding from what it looks like now.

 

Quick geography again, green normal, yellow elevated levels and so on:

 

Heilbronn and Heidelberg is Neckar river, Worms and Mainz Rhine river, Aschaffenburg and Frankfurt Main river.

 

It really has been a weird weather pattern. Today I have had frequent looks at the radar imaging and been out and about. Almost all the rain stayed below the line Büdingen - Hanau -Worms on this map. We have mainly had a mix of grey skies and a bit of blue in Rhineland- Palatinate.

 

It is an eerily repeat of what happened eleven years ago almost to the day. The Rhine was very high, the Danube was terribly high creating a 100 year flood.

 

On the Rhine this now is flooding that occurs every two to ten years (depending on gauge station). On the Danube it looks to be worse as regards the statistics.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

 

[Dwg7127]

Wow!. Just found this great topic thread. Lots of good info on the terrible flooding along the Rhine and in southern Germany. Hopefully the rain stops soon.

We are scheduled to board our Rhine cruise on Saturday, June 8th in Basel, sailing to Amsterdam. Based on what I'm reading about the high-water levels on the Rhine and the ban on barge traffic that went into effect yesterday, it looks like we will be doing more bussing than cruising (assuming the roads are unaffected). Any further updates to the river levels and cruise traffic would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[notamermaid]

Welcome to Cruisecritic.

1 hour ago, Dwg7127 said:

We are scheduled to board our Rhine cruise on Saturday, June 8th in Basel, sailing to Amsterdam. Based on what I'm reading about the high-water levels on the Rhine and the ban on barge traffic that went into effect yesterday, it looks like we will be doing more bussing than cruising (assuming the roads are unaffected).

That is an interesting sail date for the time line of the flooding. I explain. If your ship is at Basel ready and waiting for you on Saturday you may be able to sail without problem. You are starting after the wave has gone and the flooding subsided enough and as you are having port stops in between are never able to "catch up with" the flooding. But that is the theory, your ship could be a different one or in another port, perhaps struggling to make it through the Rhine Gorge. Your cruise company will of course inform you of what will be happening and knows what restrictions may still be in place. And what the logistics are best to get the ships back on their proper itineraries.

 

Basel and the Upper Rhine valley are recovering. Here are the two graphs to show that:

 

Hopefully the rain will subside and therefore Maxau return to a high but navigable level and not rise again.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Dwg7127]

Wow! Just found this great topic thread. Lots of very good info about the terrible flooding along the Rhine and southern Germany.
We are scheduled to board our river cruise on Saturday June 8th in Basel, cruising to Amsterdam. Based on what I’m reading about the high river level and barge traffic ban, I guess we may be doing more bussing than cruising. Any updating on the river level would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

Notamermaid (a late night for you. I am at 5:30pm and you are 7hrs ahead).

Thank you very much for the info, much appreciated. I suspect our boat is cruising from Amsterdam to Basel, so running into the wave. If that delays them in a port on the way then they will have a contingency plan I guess. Either we board late in Basel or bus to wherever the boat gets to (or something in between). We will make the best of it. Unfortunately residents on the river will be have a very hard time of it.

[Next]

https://undine.bafg.de/rhein/zustand-aktuell/rhein_akt_WQ.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2qvXYjV6joPWCVEyVDZyudq9fSXtUlbhbF7op25WjZSMgIJHsBvo9OukM_aem_AfQQIzX_1q9tm_VteAxiyQL2qkAJFlIJ8NdGRpVfgyYiVM6xtF6IomKHaMXe3_5ZGHKxa4QaZStmGvyE_lA6sCfo#navigation

[notamermaid]

Link is a bit slow to load but it works. The situation is not good along the gauges downstream from Maxau. But first, at Maxau the forecast suggests that the level will fall more slowly now. This could keep the level above navigational flood mark II for a bit longer. It is now at 795cm.

 

Worms crossed the mark this morning and will have flooding that occurs every ten years. Mannheim is also mark II. Mainz looks likely to follow, Kaub is tentative. Koblenz has issued a flood warning for the low-lying areas of the city. This includes the likely flooding of the Moselle embankment where river cruise ships dock.

 

With the Moselle not contributing much water the situation will likely not be as bad below Koblenz.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

It is getting rather full in Koblenz with river cruise ships and Viking is even docking triple on the Rhine. As far as I know the authorities only allow three deep on the Rhine in emergencies. Like on the Danube one of the challenges right now is docking a passenger ship safely at an accessible dock and trying to keep an itinerary going. I have not seen so many ships at Koblenz for a long time:

 

You can zoom in to read all the names: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:7.604/centery:50.361/zoom:16

 

For now you can see them all on feratel: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/koblenz.html

 

It has been confirmed that river traffic at Worms is suspended. The crest of the wave is now in Speyer, all gauges downstream from there are still rising.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Ladyshopper23]

This is such an interesting and useful thread, thank you @notamermaid

 

I really hope that the flooding does not impact the communities living closest to the river too much. Must be quite scary watching those river levels rise.

 

I don't pretend to understand everything that is being said, but am trying to follow along as best I can.

 

We are due to embark an APT river cruise on 28th June at Nuremberg, that is sailing to Amsterdam. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether we are impacted by this or not.

[Dwg7127]

The boat we are scheduled to board on the 8th (Emerald Dawn) in Basel is coming from Amsterdam and scheduled to arrive Koblenz tomorrow June 5th. Looks like it will be held up there. Any idea when the river traffic will be able to move again?

[NCvol24]

2 hours ago, Dwg7127 said:

The boat we are scheduled to board on the 8th (Emerald Dawn) in Basel is coming from Amsterdam and scheduled to arrive Koblenz tomorrow June 5th. Looks like it will be held up there. Any idea when the river traffic will be able to move again?

How are you to tell if it is held up? We are scheduled to depart next week on the Rhine. Hoping to make the most of it like you.