Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[NCvol24]

23 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

River level update. Koblenz peaked at 575cm this morning. The crest of the wave is now going through Bonn and Cologne. Both look to have a peak below the line for a flood that happens every two years. So no big deal and far away from the line of a river traffic ban. A look further downstream reveals that the situation at Düsseldorf is most likely to be similar. So all good there. With no more tributaries providing higher than normal volumes of water to the Lower Rhine this could turn into a "straight run through" now for the waters. The Meuse is fine but the Dutch authorities are indicating elevated levels around the Ijssel. Not sure if that could have any impact in connection with the wave coming from Germany. Maxau gauge: nice drop, potentially lifting of the river traffic ban earlier on Friday than the authorities had anticipated. At weekend further improvement possible, a bit early to say.

 

Ship docking "madness". I never knew you could get so many river cruise ships into Koblenz. The Emerald Dawn is still there, with the Treasures alongside her. Another rafting couple is made up of the Scenic Crystal and the Emerald Sun. The Viking Alruna and the Viking Kara are the "mad" pair. This morning the Viking Kara joined the Viking Alruna and then had a run to Osterspai! First I thought she would drop passengers off at Braubach for Marksburg Castle but she did not stop there. She just turned around and went back to Koblenz. If anyone has a clue what the point of these two trips to Osterspai were please enlighten me.

 

notamermaid

 

Would you mind explaining the straight run through comment?

 

I saw someone post that they were being bussed from Stausburg to the Viking Kara tomorrow in hopes to travel to Cologne by the ship on Friday. Do ships ever "test" before passengers come? It seems like that would be a waste though.

[notamermaid]

I mentioned docking locations in the Rhine Gorge and Boppard town this morning. The river is down a bit now so more or less back to how this drone flight shows the situation as it was yesterday morning. Some nice footage of the town and you can see the docking problem. At 1:32 you can read "Autofähre", the car ferry. After a short interview about when the road B9 may reopen the drone moves on and shows St. Goar town:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH__rKLJmc4

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

30 minutes ago, NCvol24 said:

Would you mind explaining the straight run through comment?

Sorry, not clear. I meant the water coming from the Upper and Middle Rhine valleys running straight through the Lower Rhine valley without the tributaries from Andernach to the border with the Netherlands contributing more than their normal volume of water. Which means good prospects for river traffic from Andernach to Emmerich.

 

34 minutes ago, NCvol24 said:

I saw someone post that they were being bussed from Stausburg to the Viking Kara tomorrow in hopes to travel to Cologne by the ship on Friday. Do ships ever "test" before passengers come? It seems like that would be a waste though.

Never thought about testing or read about it. I would say it is normally not necessary as captains know the area and the calculations they need to make as regards depth of the navigation channel and they have very detailed maps as well as radar. On the Saar though, a different river with more serious flooding in May, sonar ships are checking the navigation channel for debris and gravel deposits now before river traffic can fully resume. I do not know if in the current situation any problems have arisen on the Rhine.

 

Strasbourg to Koblenz onto the Viking Kara - that is my definition of a long coach ride for sure. From the video above you can see that the road in the Rhine Gorge is partly submerged. By tomorrow this should be accessible again but I have no guarantee, just a rough estimate. If the roads are still partly blocked you cannot even fully enjoy the castles. Not my idea of a several thousand dollar river cruise, if I may say so.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge has fallen below the level of the river traffic ban. On paper this means river traffic could resume in that river section. However, Bingen upstream is still not accessible.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited June 6 by notamermaid
added info

[Dwg7127]

Notamermaid, thanks for the Emerald Dawn and river level updates.

We are on our second day of land pre-cruise in Zurich and the weather has been beautiful. Hopefully the nice weather will help reduce the river levels. Emerald is still not advising us of any deviations from their planned sailing schedule (Basel to Amsterdam) of Saturday June 8th. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the ship makes it to Basel for the 8th otherwise I assume we will be bussed to the first port-of-call at Freiburg.

[Canal archive]

After a flood situation the powers that be will, depending on the ferocity of the flooding test the known challenge areas. They know that shoals could have moved even marker buoys moved out of position. No one can use a throw away line ‘oh the river has always been there’ yes it has but conditions change it as it’s an always evolving situation or you could say beast, well they certainly are at the moment. Technology is certainly helping but I bet the older local users of the system are being asked for their input as well. Fingers crossed the rain eases but I’m sorry to say we’ve got it back and not airy fairy stuff, so will try not to send it your way.

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Fingers crossed the rain eases but I’m sorry to say we’ve got it back and not airy fairy stuff, so will try not to send it your way.

Low over the British Isles? Yes,  I would appreciate a diversion via the tip of Scandinavia. Thank you. 😊

 

We had a bit more rain yesterday than I had expected but today it is bright and sunny. Around 20 Celsius.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, Dwg7127 said:

Notamermaid, thanks for the Emerald Dawn and river level updates.

We are on our second day of land pre-cruise in Zurich and the weather has been beautiful. Hopefully the nice weather will help reduce the river levels. Emerald is still not advising us of any deviations from their planned sailing schedule (Basel to Amsterdam) of Saturday June 8th. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the ship makes it to Basel for the 8th otherwise I assume we will be bussed to the first port-of-call at Freiburg.

Welcome to Europe. Soon you will be at "my" river in Basel but I assume the Emerald Dawn will not be. I have not checked, perhaps there is a sister ship up there in or near Basel for you? It is less than 48 hours to go and I am a but surprised Emerald has not said anything yet. One could argue it is enough when the rep picking you up will inform you that you will be taken by coach or the ship is "that one over there instead of the Emerald Dawn" [finger pointing to dock]. Still, a bit odd.

 

So where is she? The Emerald Dawn left Koblenz during the night and is by now probably already in Rüdesheim. Yes, ships are moving in the Rhine Gorge! 😊

 

notamermaid

 

[NCvol24]

26 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Welcome to Europe. Soon you will be at "my" river in Basel but I assume the Emerald Dawn will not be. I have not checked, perhaps there is a sister ship up there in or near Basel for you? It is less than 48 hours to go and I am a but surprised Emerald has not said anything yet. One could argue it is enough when the rep picking you up will inform you that you will be taken by coach or the ship is "that one over there instead of the Emerald Dawn" [finger pointing to dock]. Still, a bit odd.

 

So where is she? The Emerald Dawn left Koblenz during the night and is by now probably already in Rüdesheim. Yes, ships are moving in the Rhine Gorge! 😊

 

notamermaid

 

What a nice morning update! 🙂

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, Canal archive said:

After a flood situation the powers that be will, depending on the ferocity of the flooding test the known challenge areas.

Yes, that is what happened on the Saar where the flooding was serious, really ferocious. On the Rhine we are having standard to above standard flooding. In the Upper Rhine valley there area some notorious stretches with gravel banks. I can imagine that in the next few days the authorities will be careful. The Middle Rhine valley has fewer of those places, more rock, but sand and gravel always move of course. We will see how it goes. Generally it should be okay, but there is always the issue of low water in autumn when the new deposits come nearer a ship hull. Well that is hopefully for another month and very little of it, touch wood.

 

The sonar ship Hildegard von Bingen:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Peilschiff_Hildegard_von_Bingen.jpeg

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

16 minutes ago, NCvol24 said:

What a nice morning update! 🙂

Always good to start breakfast with some good news. 😊

 

So we have the Rhine Gorge back, and parts of the Upper Rhine (Worms). All still very high but from the authorities' regulations point of view okay. Maxau gauge still too high and the needed 750cm pushed to Friday lunchtime.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

As indicated yesterday in my posts, the authorities on the Lower Rhine are treating this flooding as only level 1, that means with little disruption to every day life really. Flooding of agricultural land and some roads along the embankments inaccessible. Not big deal.

 

For context. Cologne gauge (already going down):

 

It stayed under flooding that happens every two years.

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Generally it should be okay, but there is always the issue of low water in autumn when the new deposits come nearer a ship hull. Well that is hopefully for another month and very little of it, touch wood.

 

 

notamermaid

 

I would hope they would take a look at it before it becomes an issue My one interruption in river trips so far was the result of just that. The 2021 floods, come September and a barge and Viking ship both grounded themselves in a narrower than expected Rhine and THEN they decided to dredge it causing further disruptions. 
 

(for me it was minor bussed from Basel to embark in Strasbourg instead and then leaving early because it was still 2 lane but before that it looked like a real mess )

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

I would hope they would take a look at it before it becomes an issue My one interruption in river trips so far was the result of just that. The 2021 floods, come September and a barge and Viking ship both grounded themselves in a narrower than expected Rhine and THEN they decided to dredge it causing further disruptions. 

I remember that one. It was a barge that got stuck and then trying to free itself re-positioned the gravel so to speak. And the Viking ship got stuck. It was in the Upper Rhine valley.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

In a nice turn of events, Maxau gauge has dropped faster than anticipated during the afternoon. If all goes well the graph could show 750cm before midnight.

 

Further upriver, Lake Constance is still signalling official flooding, so is Hauenstein between the mouth of the Aare river and Basel. So we will see high levels in the Upper Rhine valley for a few days. I would call the situation at Maxau "wobbly". We cannot be sure yet how the weekend develops.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

We have got the Speyer section back for river traffic as well as far as I know, so this leaves only a relatively small part of the German Rhine to return to shipping.

 

If you would like to see lots of water, have a look at the live webcam of the Rhine Falls:

 

It says on the official website that discharge today is over 900m³ per second, the average for summer is 600m³ per second.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

We have read that the Viking Kara will remain in Koblenz to receive her new passengers from Strasbourg.

 

And the Emerald Dawn? She is in Mainz, still over 300 kilometres away from Basel. With her in Mainz is the Treasures, now it appears slightly delayed on her way to Budapest. Still, I will follow her path through the wave on the Main and her arrival on the Danube in time hopefully for better conditions over there by then.

 

notamermaid

 

[NCvol24]

37 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

We have got the Speyer section back for river traffic as well as far as I know, so this leaves only a relatively small part of the German Rhine to return to shipping.

 

If you would like to see lots of water, have a look at the live webcam of the Rhine Falls:

 

It says on the official website that discharge today is over 900m³ per second, the average for summer is 600m³ per second.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thanks for sharing. The one thing after a rainfall that I love seeing are waterfalls! I remember hiking to one in NC after days of straight rain, and couldn't believe the intensity!

[notamermaid]

Shall we end the day on good news? I think it is good news, I am not an official but may we at Maxau, you know... Gauge says 749cm and I see ships signalling three to five minutes ago and moving towards Karlsruhe/Maxau:

 

Oh, and the wave has arrived at the German border with the Netherlands where it has lost its severity for sure as I mentioned earlier this morning.

 

notamermaid

 

[Izengolf]

Interesting times for Uniworld on the Rhine. The River Queen has left Strasbourg and is headed to Amsterdam to get back on track. They have announced that the June 8 and 9 for the SS Antoinette and Victoria - both on the wrong side of their itineraries - will have passengers board on the opposite ship. This must be quite an undertaking as they have very different capacities and room categories and there will surely be people moved to the Antoinette unhappy to not have a suite or a much smaller cabin. In order to get the ships on their correct itinerary, they must be planning a ship swap mid-week or the Antoinette is going the wrong way for the rest of 2024. Plus, next week is the President's Cruise on the Victoria out of Basel and surely they need that cruise to go as planned. After that she moves to a different itinerary for the summer so the uneven swaps could not continue indefinitely. 

 

I feel for the route planners and passengers at all lines for the next couple weeks as things get sorted yet they have small problems compared to the local residents recovering from the floods.

Edited June 7 by Izengolf

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Izengolf said:

In order to get the ships on their correct itinerary, they must be planning a ship swap mid-week or the Antoinette is going the wrong way for the rest of 2024.

I have read of ship swaps being done just to get ships back where they are supposed to be, so with those ships not being the same layout I guess they will really have to swap. Hope your Rhine and Moselle journey works out as planned. With four weeks to go, it should.

 

Officially the flood warnings for the Middle and Lower Rhine have been lifted and Maxau gauge is at 740cm. Good, with a huge big BUT. You have seen the Rhine Falls, and all that water together with the Aare river needs to get through the Upper Rhine valley. So the weekend now looks alright, but... I will let it play, i.e. let the computer modelling update during the day and then will check again.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[NCvol24]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

I have read of ship swaps being done just to get ships back where they are supposed to be, so with those ships not being the same layout I guess they will really have to swap. Hope your Rhine and Moselle journey works out as planned. With four weeks to go, it should.

 

Officially the flood warnings for the Middle and Lower Rhine have been lifted and Maxau gauge is at 740cm. Good, with a huge big BUT. You have seen the Rhine Falls, and all that water together with the Aare river needs to get through the Upper Rhine valley. So the weekend now looks alright, but... I will let it play, i.e. let the computer modelling update during the day and then will check again.

 

notamermaid

 

 

No buts allowed! 😄 We are off to Amsterdam for a couple of days soon, fingers crossed for next week still!

[notamermaid]

Okay, will leave out the but. 😁 But hide behind a shield so no one can shoot the messenger. I have just popped over from the Danube thread where things are not going too well, I mean on the river. We here are having better weather and the levels of the river are doing okay for now, I am not very familiar with the Netherlands but it still looks all good up there with the Dutch authorities reporting no more than elevated levels at Lobith. That is the first gauge of the Rhine in the Netherlands. And no high volumes of water seem to be troubling the Netherlands elsewhere.

 

So, to approach the topic slowly. I am still not too happy with what the computer is calculating at Maxau gauge and Lake Constance is still registered as being on flooding level, not rising but staying on this high.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Emerald Dawn is sailing, has covered some ground today but not enough. After a stop at Gernsheim she continued upriver and is approaching Worms.

 

The Treasures is now on the Main sailing through Frankfurt.

 

The Main is also now back to mean levels, from the graphs I interpret that there was no river traffic ban, but that did not guarantee unimpeded sailing, you know - the low bridges.

 

We need to look at that graph at Maxau gauge soon, I am afraid.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Dwg7127]

12 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

The Emerald Dawn is sailing, has covered some ground today but not enough. After a stop at Gernsheim she continued upriver and is approaching Worms.

 

The Treasures is now on the Main sailing through Frankfurt.

 

The Main is also now back to mean levels, from the graphs I interpret that there was no river traffic ban, but that did not guarantee unimpeded sailing, you know - the low bridges.

 

We need to look at that graph at Maxau gauge soon, I am afraid.

 

notamermaid

 

 

We have been told that the Emerald Dawn will dock at Mannheim, not Basel and we will bussed there from Lucerne to board. Our visit into Freiburg is cancelled and another tour will be made in the Mannheim area (wine tasting which is the same as was scheduled for Freiburg). The next day we visit Strasbourg, which puts us back on original planned schedule (but all while docked in Mannheim). So more bussing than we had hoped but we are making the best of it.