Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

6 minutes ago, Dwg7127 said:

We have been told that the Emerald Dawn will dock at Mannheim, not Basel and we will bussed there from Lucerne to board.

That is quite the long coach ride. Good that they can still offer Strasbourg although with another long-ish coach ride. And you get to see the Rhine Gorge. You know, them cutting out Strasbourg and Maxau/Karlsruhe sailing could prove to be wise on top of easier logistics. Sailing is at reduced speed and Maxau gauge is not looking too good, which I will come to shortly.

 

Have a good trip.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

We have the Moselle in fine form, the Neckar back, the Saar mostly back (from May flooding), the Main back and the Middle Rhine and Lower Rhine back for river cruising.

 

The Upper Rhine valley is also back for now. What does that mean? The level has fallen at Maxau gauge to now 732cm, so also okay. The High Rhine is high and Lake Constance still on flooding status. This is a little problematic for Basel but I have no details on the situation there, just that it is still on flood vigilance. Although we have good weather and no rain, there is too much water for the Karlsruhe area to cope with. The level at Maxau is forecast to rise again and if the computer modelling is correct the river will be on 750cm again early on Tuesday.

 

Before that we have the European elections and various local elections on Sunday, you will have seen the election campaign banners and posters in towns and villages. Emotions a bit higher than they are in other weeks but so far incidents have been few albeit a couple of them tragic.

 

Hopefully we can then start the celebrations and cheering of the European Football Cup in peace and quiet with the Rhine fully back on 14 June.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Thank you Notamermaid for your holding our hands through this miasma of water inflicted challenges has been little short of superb, but you had to mention the F word, not that one! the one with the daaaaaaaaam ball. I’m off to purchase a second TV.

[Dwg7127]

12 hours ago, notamermaid said:

That is quite the long coach ride. Good that they can still offer Strasbourg although with another long-ish coach ride. And you get to see the Rhine Gorge. You know, them cutting out Strasbourg and Maxau/Karlsruhe sailing could prove to be wise on top of easier logistics. Sailing is at reduced speed and Maxau gauge is not looking too good, which I will come to shortly.

 

Have a good trip.

 

notamermaid

 

Now I get it, the Emerald Dawn doesn’t want to get stuck at Maxau (either going upstream or downstream) so is docking at Mannheim and not Strasbourg or closer to Basel.

[Canal archive]

Someone’s on the ball!

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Dwg7127 said:

Now I get it, the Emerald Dawn doesn’t want to get stuck at Maxau (either going upstream or downstream) so is docking at Mannheim and not Strasbourg or closer to Basel.

I am assuming this is the case.

 

Brief look: Maxau gauge is at 725cm. 750cm is in the modelling for 1am to 3am on Tuesday.

 

Note that the wave coming Monday and Tuesday will be nowhere near as high as the one before and is unlikely to have a major affect on the gauges downstream from Mannheim (and not Mannheim either).

 

notamermaid

 

[Dwg7127]

The Emerald cruise director has also said that excessive boat traffic through the southern Rhine locks and lack of docking are also the reason for boarding at Mannheim. Getting through the locks could take 20hrs.

[notamermaid]

43 minutes ago, Dwg7127 said:

The Emerald cruise director has also said that excessive boat traffic through the southern Rhine locks and lack of docking are also the reason for boarding at Mannheim. Getting through the locks could take 20hrs.

Oh yes. There is still only one chamber at Iffezheim lock and there are not as many suitable docking locations for river cruise ships in the Upper Rhine valley as in the Middle Rhine valley, in density I mean. I can imagine that there is a real traffic jam that will take some time to clear.

 

750cm is still in the modelling, now around 11pm on Monday. This will keep changing a bit as regards time but although the graph is now a bit lower than yesterday, a short river traffic ban looks almost inevitable.

 

It is raining in the Vosges Mountains, around Basel, in the Upper Rhine valley and in the Neckar valley. This band of rain has also already extended into Bavaria, so more water for the Danube basin.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Lake Constance is rising further and the Swiss authorities have now put in on their respective flood level 4. Problems are starting with low bridges, debris, inaccessible landing stations and more difficult navigation. Basel gauge is indicating a fast rise in volume of water the river has to deal with. Time frame suggests that this is what will drive the rise at Maxau gauge indicated for Monday. So we can say that the modelling for the Upper Rhine valley in Germany looks to be correct.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited June 8 by notamermaid
grammar

[notamermaid]

On 6/8/2024 at 12:51 AM, notamermaid said:

Hopefully we can then start the celebrations and cheering of the European Football Cup in peace and quiet with the Rhine fully back on 14 June.

 

The crosses have been put in all sorts of places on paper in all sorts of colours and a lot of people will have a busy evening and busy Monday. Local elections are a lot of work to count. Posters will soon disappear from towns and cities. Where they will remain "for posterity" [pun unintended] is - in videos of flooding. Yesterday I watched a video of the river Neckar and there along the embankment road were the posters on lampposts.

 

On the Rhine, well, we still have official flooding, at Lake Constance, at Hauenstein and at Maxau gauge. The Swiss levels are a bit different from the German way of doing it but for us for river cruising the most important one is the figure at Maxau gauge. After a dip during the day the river level has gone up again, is now at 721cm and forecast to rise to 740cm during the course of tomorrow. The 750cm will almost inevitably happen in due course.

 

notamermaid

 

[NCvol24]

5 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

The crosses have been put in all sorts of places on paper in all sorts of colours and a lot of people will have a busy evening and busy Monday. Local elections are a lot of work to count. Posters will soon disappear from towns and cities. Where they will remain "for posterity" [pun unintended] is - in videos of flooding. Yesterday I watched a video of the river Neckar and there along the embankment road were the posters on lampposts.

 

On the Rhine, well, we still have official flooding, at Lake Constance, at Hauenstein and at Maxau gauge. The Swiss levels are a bit different from the German way of doing it but for us for river cruising the most important one is the figure at Maxau gauge. After a dip during the day the river level has gone up again, is now at 721cm and forecast to rise to 740cm during the course of tomorrow. The 750cm will almost inevitably happen in due course.

 

notamermaid

 

What ports do you see this potentially hurting?

[notamermaid]

58 minutes ago, NCvol24 said:

What ports do you see this potentially hurting?

Ah yes. I am not familiar with the port of Basel so cannot say much about that. There has been mention of a low bridge and rearranged docking positions in the past. Likewise the situation may affect the Grand Canal (French Rhine section) a little. I see the bigger problem in Germany. A river traffic ban would make Karlsruhe harbour and Germersheim difficult to reach or inaccessible. It is just that you create a cut/interruption in any itinerary that goes from either Basel or Strasbourg downriver or makes you stop at Germersheim (I think) not being allowed further upstream. A regards a river traffic ban extending to the other official sections downstream, it does not look substantial enough to cause problems there. So I would say at the moment it looks as if Speyer should be okay and Worms downstream to the Netherlands should be fine.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited June 9 by notamermaid
grammar

[Cleopatra99]

5 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

On the Rhine, well, we still have official flooding, at Lake Constance, at Hauenstein and at Maxau gauge. The Swiss levels are a bit different from the German way of doing it but for us for river cruising the most important one is the figure at Maxau gauge. After a dip during the day the river level has gone up again, is now at 721cm and forecast to rise to 740cm during the course of tomorrow. The 750cm will almost inevitably happen in due course.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Scenic Opal left Amsterdam on 6 June bound for Basel. The ship is due to arrive in Rastatt on 10 June. At the moment it is around 1am in Rastatt and Opal is still in / near Manheim and has not moved for some time. I assume the high water at Maxau is preventing the ship from proceeding further. I'm not sure what this means for those on board who are due to disembark in Basel on 12 June or for those who are due to embark in Basel on the 12th.

 

The ship is diue back in Amsterdam on 19 June so I assume it will be ok to return from it's present position even if it can't proceed any further towards Basel.

 

At least I hope so - we are due to board on the 19th in Amsterdam (insert fingers-crossed symbol here).

 

[notamermaid]

2 minutes ago, Cleopatra99 said:

The ship is diue back in Amsterdam on 19 June so I assume it will be ok to return from it's present position even if it can't proceed any further towards Basel.

Tricky situation. We have mentioned the chamber at Iffezheim lock. Traffic is slower than normal per flooding regulations. The river is just very high still. It really may make sense to have passengers board in Strasbourg or Speyer or even Mannheim, depending on where you want your ship to be in the next few days. Rastatt is here (Plittersdorf actually, in the administrative district of the town I think):

 

The yellow dot near Karlsruhe is Maxau. So if the ship arrives at Rastatt tomorrow it may need to stop there, or make a mad dash through Iffezheim lock which is nearby but upstream.

 

I have had a look at Maxau gauge forecast. It looks a little better but I very much still see the risk of a river traffic ban, although most likely it will not be for long. Things should be clearer by tomorrow afternoon.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

No major change to forecast. Now that we are getting closer to when the wave is supposed to be in Maxau the forecast becomes even more reliable. The rise should happen during the afternoon and into the evening with the 750cm coming tomorrow morning. Now we can assume that the line will inevitably be crossed (with miniscule chance of it staying below). Likely range of figures 760cm to 775cm.

 

Lake Constance experiencing real problems, the level has gone up to 505cm. Figure of 512cm denotes a flood that happens every ten years.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Lake Constance is at 507cm. Its rise is still to a small extent fed by snow melt.

 

The climb at Maxau gauge is happening. Figure now is 726cm. Forecast 735cm by midnight. 750cm around 10am.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

What happens when Lake Constance floods?  How high can the water get before they have to release large amounts?

[notamermaid]

39 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

What happens when Lake Constance floods?  How high can the water get before they have to release large amounts?

Good question actually because one may assume that there is something artificial about the Lake. While the inlet of the Rhine is controlled with regulatory embankments and groynes, for want of a more professional explanation, but not a lock; the outlet of the Lake, i.e. the Rhine has no dam and no lock. There is no way to control the water flow there. Wikipedia page of the Bodensee in German: "Die Pegel sind starken witterungsbedingten (Winddrift) und jahreszeitlichen Schwankungen ausgesetzt. Der Bodensee hat keinen Damm und keine Schleuse am Abfluss, daher ist eine künstliche Regulierung des Wasserstands nicht möglich."

 

The Lake actually consists of three lakes that are connected to each other. At Lake Constance all that can happen at a river can happen there too. Roads along the shore flooded, cellars flooded, ferries not running, bridge too dangerous or overflowing as well as not enough headroom under it. Or docking locations become inaccessible. In addition to that there is regular boat service as part of public transport on the Lake. I read that there are a few disruptions to that now. This is the bridge that has too little headroom for the local boats, so the local authority is informing the citizens in this article about the disruptions to service: https://www.konstanz-info.com/news/brueckensperrung-in-konstanz-schiffsverkehr-zwischen-kreuzlingen-und-gottlieben-faellt-aus

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Maxau gauge now at 731cm. No change to forecast. Will be back to report tomorrow afternoon or evening.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Back earlier than expected.

 

Confirming that Maxau gauge has crossed the line. Now at 754cm and rising. Peak expected between 9pm and 10pm tonight. River traffic suspended: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/karlsruhe/schifffahrt-auf-rhein-bei-karlsruhe-eingestellt-100.html

 

Lake Constance now at 509cm. Two centimetres more than yesterday is not much but at this point in time substantial for such a large body of water. It is glacial in origin and very deep. Read yesterday what is thought to be lying in the Lake. You know, body count and ship count.

 

Fun fact, the Lake is 63km long which makes it just 2km shorter than the so-called Rhine Gorge where all the castles are. I mean, that is a long lake. And the sheer mass of it is impressive when you stand at the shore. It has its own micro-climate.

 

This is how the Alpine Rhine flows controlled into Lake Constance, in the Lake it is called the "Seerhein", after it has flown out it is the High Rhine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Constance#/media/File:Aerial_image_of_the_mouth_of_the_Rhine_into_Lake_Constance.jpg

 

All in all though, people around the Lake are still fairly relaxed about it. It has been higher when the impact was of course greater, like at Whitsuntide 1999.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

River doing well, forecast was quite correct. Rise minimal since this morning.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Maxau gauge has peaked.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Look who came out of the Rhine Gorge at ten past six tonight and was about to dock at Rüdesheim, the S.S. Antoinette:

 

For those who are relatively new to this thread, I recommend this webcam for some serious ship spotting: https://heimatzeithotels.panomax.com/bingen?cu=en-GB

 

There are a couple of other ships docked there tonight, among them the Emerald Dawn.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

That still looks seriously heavy water I bet some of the Captains have just a few more grey hairs, still they will be looking even more distinguished. 

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

That still looks seriously heavy water I bet some of the Captains have just a few more grey hairs, still they will be looking even more distinguished. 

Uniform, captain's hat and a hint of grey in the hair. Yes, nice. Unusually, the older gentleman on my river cruise was actually the second in line, the younger one was the first captain, not even thirty years old.

 

The high water will stay with us for a while.

 

I think the cruise directors and office workers have actually had the more stressful job these last two weeks. The logistical challenges were quite something. On the Danube the situation has eased but is still not resolved.

 

But to the Rhine...

 

notamermaid