Danube water levels 2024 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[steamboats]

According to Plantours all people were able to continue the cruise. No major injuries.

 

steamboats 

[RDVIK2016]

11 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The crew on my ship, the MS Belvedere, was Eastern European mostly. The two captains were from Serbia I believe. Interestingly, the younger one was in charge, with the older being the "second captain". It only became clear during the cocktail hour talks. The older one was more experienced with the passengers so talked a bit more. Really nice guy. He was the one who showed us the wheelhouse during an afternoon sail. The hotel staff appeared to be a mix of Eastern European and Austrian and German.

 

notamermaid

 

On the first Viking river cruise that my wife and I took the Captain and his 1st and 2nd officers seemed more accessible to passengers than they were on our others. That Captain was Bulgarian. The two officers who were also qualified to maneuver the ship he referred to as his Pilots. On that ship they were both Slovaks and one of them seemed to be topside often and available to converse with - I befriended one by listing all the Slovak ice hockey players I knew. I spent a little bit of time in the wheelhouse with him and the Chief Engineer (a German). I only know that the Captains of our other two ships were a Slovak (with a Hungarian name as many Slovaks are ethnic Hungarians) and a German from a town on the Elbe. Not much was seen of their "Pilots". It may have been that management, after Viking had a couple of serious accidents since our first cruise, put a short leash on those who man the helm of the ships. On our last cruise on the Rhine they did not even offer the usual group visit to the wheelhouse. We had the same German Hotel Manager on two of our cruises. Other staff have come from every former Warsaw Pact and Yugoslav nation as well as Filipino, Brazilian, and more. I love the diversity!

[Canal archive]

Strangely enough age Captain wise has been an interesting anomaly on a few of our cruises not necessarily the Danube but think father & son on the Bordeaux cruise father far more experience but son far more qualified and not over only his father, to the extent he returned from holiday to navigate through the Napoleon bridge. Two captains on our last Seine cruise being tested for extra maritime qualifications so that a pilot was not required to navigate into Honfluer harbour, we had a party in the evening as both had passed with flying colours but one was a year to young so had to wait to show off his achievements. Reading between the lines I’m pretty sure many of the cruise ships upper maritime crews are ex barge captains vastly experienced (thank goodness) but not necessarily having the fullest paper qualifications. Watching these guys work is in some cases really interesting and yes many of them are Eastern European, the father and son were English but had lived and worked on the European mainland for many, many years, the Seine pair were  very French, ohh La La!

[notamermaid]

It is April and time to have a look at what the river did in March. Pfelling gauge:

 

These levels are good for this time of year. We need the river to be a bit high, i.e. above the mean, to sustain it during summer. All in all it has been an uneventful month as regards levels. All good.

 

Next up are the lock closures for maintenance from 8 April on the Canal and 10 April on the German Danube (see also from post #32 in this thread).

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

There will be no ship traffic on the Main-Danube Canal from 8 April to 28 April as 300 employees will be working around the clock to address 150 repairs and inspections. Projects will include replacement of some lock gates as well as repairs on gate drives and lock controls. Twenty lock chambers will be out of service and seven will be totally or partially drained for inspections.  https://www.tvaktuell.com/main-donau-kanal-fuer-drei-wochen-wegen-arbeiten-gesperrt-597015/

[Canal archive]

In the 1800’s the Kennet & Avon Canal was closed for two weeks each year for annual maintenance so nothings new. I’m just glad they can find 300 employees to do the work. No maintenance no river cruising!

[notamermaid]

14 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

There will be no ship traffic on the Main-Danube Canal from 8 April to 28 April

Indeed. As we have noted earlier in the year, this includes some Danube locks in Germany as well. Maintenance there starts on 10 April.

 

Some of the locks in Austria are being maintained this winter and spring but at all locks one chamber is always open.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Danube length is calculated and marked from the source upstream, so Kelheim in Germany is at kilometre 2414. That is the point where the river becomes navigable for large ships. In Kelheim ships turn into the Main Danube Canal. Upstream from the town only a few excursion boats are permitted to sail and not for many kilometres. The Danube has already flowed through Germany for almost 500 kilometres before it reaches Kelheim. Naturally, several historic towns line the river that river cruisers will never see - unless they opt for a land trip before embarking. But that is a topic for another post. I mention this because one such place bears in its name the old German word for river island "Werth" or "Werd". That is Donauwörth. Yes I know, it is spelled differently, which is typical for the South of Germany and Austria. Peculiar about Donauwörth is the fact that the Free Imperial City was called Schwäbischwerth in the Middle Ages.

 

The Danube has many islands as you may expect but in Germany they are not as plentiful as on the Rhine in comparison. But Regensburg administrative district can claim four islands to be in its territory. They are Mariaorter Wörhd, Oberer Wöhrd and Unterer Wöhrd. While the first one is uninhabited, the two latter ones are home to quite a few people. And there is the fourth one, Stadtamhof, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. I must say the park on Oberer Wöhrd looks really attractive on photos.

 

notamermaid

 

[smlri]

Hello

Thinking of taking a Viking Danube cruise in October. What is the weather like there then?  Thanks

[HawaiiTraveler]

44 minutes ago, smlri said:

Hello

Thinking of taking a Viking Danube cruise in October. What is the weather like there then?  Thanks

Aloha. We did a Viking Grand European Tour cruise last year from Budapest to Amsterdam that started on October 21st and ended on November 4th. The weather was a nice combination of dry, sunny/overcast weather in the upper 50°-mid 60° Fahrenheit range and occasionally wet, blustery weather in the mid 40°-mid 50° Fahrenheit range. We scheduled our cruise for October as the low water conditions seem to be less likely after September. I think it was perfect fall weather and the cooler temperature made the excursions easier. We are also doing the Viking Grand European Tour again this year from Budapest starting on November 25th as we wanted to visit the Kriskindlmarkt’s in Germany which open from

late November. Hope you have a great cruise. Aloha!

Edited April 7 by HawaiiTraveler

[RDVIK2016]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The Danube length is calculated and marked from the source upstream, so Kelheim in Germany is at kilometre 2414. That is the point where the river becomes navigable for large ships. In Kelheim ships turn into the Main Danube Canal. Upstream from the town only a few excursion boats are permitted to sail and not for many kilometres. The Danube has already

flowed through Germany for almost 500 kilometres before it reaches Kelheim.

 

notamermaid,

Isn't Danube kilometer 0 at the mouth of the river in Ukraine where it empties into the Black Sea? Which differs from the Rhine which is measured from the source at Lake Constance.

RDVIK

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, RDVIK2016 said:

notamermaid,

Isn't Danube kilometer 0 at the mouth of the river in Ukraine where it empties into the Black Sea? Which differs from the Rhine which is measured from the source at Lake Constance.

RDVIK

You spotted my mistake. Oops. Of course, my sentence should read: ...marked from the mouth upstream...

Sorry.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

You spotted my mistake. Oops. Of course, my sentence should read: ...marked from the mouth upstream...

Sorry.

 

notamermaid

This would seem to work for rivers like the Rhine that empty into another river.  Wouldn't it be hard to measure e.g. the Mississippi or the Amazon upstream from the mouth, because the growing delta keeps extending the 'mouth.'  [I think of Ephesus and Ostia Antica.]

[RDVIK2016]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

This would seem to work for rivers like the Rhine that empty into another river.  Wouldn't it be hard to measure e.g. the Mississippi or the Amazon upstream from the mouth, because the growing delta keeps extending the 'mouth.'  [I think of Ephesus and Ostia Antica.]

Jazzbeau,

The Rhine and Danube both have deltas, although the way the Netherlands has reclaimed land it his hard to tell, but The channels that continue to carry the names all the way to where they empty, respectively, into the North Sea and the Black Sea are not the channels navigable by larger vessels. Actually it really looks the Waal, which carries over 70% of the volume of the Rhine from Emmerich to the North Sea, is the branch that should be called the Rijn all the way to the mouth. However the Dutch give that name to a small distributary which eventually also reaches the North Sea north of the Waal and another branch of the Rijn/Waal/Maas/Lek/whatever at Rotterdam.  (Maps from Wikipedia)

 

Ship travel on the Danube to and from the Black Sea has to take the Sulina branch through the Danube Delta. This branch has been canalized for shipping and remains in Romania. When we hear about Ukrainian grain being shipped up the Danube it can come by barge up the Sulina canal or most likely gets loaded on to barges at Izmail assuming they can save the grain from Russian missiles. Izmail is 80 kilometers from the Black Sea, and about as far as the Danube is navigable headed downstream. From there barges have to backtrack upstream and meet shipping from the Sulina and the St.George branch.

 

 

All this does not explain why the Danube is measured from the mouth and the Rhine from the "source" (sort of), but that is the way it is. The source of the Danube can be pinpointed in the Black Forest. Meanwhile the Rhine is measured from the Bodensee at Konstanz even though there is more of the Rhine, the Alpine Rhine, emptying into the other end of the lake with sources farther up in the Alps. Confusing!!

 

, emptyi

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

All this does not explain why the Danube is measured from the mouth and the Rhine from the "source" (sort of), but that is the way it is.

Yup, I have no clue why they did this.

 

Which reminds me, fun fact for those travelling on the long journey on the Danube, Canal, Main and Rhine. The Danube is now 134km shorter than in the 19th century (man-made alterations) and the Rhine has a miscalculated short kilometre: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Kurzer_Kilometer.jpg

The plus sign before the number 530 denotes the 500m mark.

 

notamermaid

 

[frangill]

Trying to decide if we should book a river cruise from Prague to Budapest in Mid August.  Looking for advise and predictions of waterlevels as well as the cruise company with the best backup plans and service please?

 

[Rebel54]

2 hours ago, frangill said:

Trying to decide if we should book a river cruise from Prague to Budapest in Mid August.  Looking for advise and predictions of waterlevels as well as the cruise company with the best backup plans and service please?

 

I'm on Prague to Transylvania with Avalon Aug 2nd - 22nd.  I choose Avalon because I love the cabins, the service and the price point.  Avalon is a part of Globus and they are well known to handle water issues.

[notamermaid]

On 4/11/2024 at 5:15 PM, frangill said:

Trying to decide if we should book a river cruise from Prague to Budapest in Mid August.  Looking for advise and predictions of waterlevels as well as the cruise company with the best backup plans and service please?

 

Water levels are very difficult to predict for the Danube, I mean not even in detail. In August flooding is rare and low water can certainly happen, it is a wide range. My advice is to have a look at the itineraries starting and ending in Vilshofen. They avoid the bottleneck between Straubing and Vilshofen where low water is most likely to happen.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

We have had warm and dry days, a bit untypical for April, that in summer would have a negative impact on the water levels. But it is still early spring. The figure at Pfelling gauge is 383cm and those figures have been stable so there is still enough water in the Danube basin for good levels in Germany. And rain is now sweeping over Bavaria.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

 

In the Rhine thread https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2984992-rhine-water-levels-2024-and-similar-topics/page/9/#comments

@euro. asked a question. I answered partly with statistics on the Danube. I am posting this again here with more explanation in figures. Here goes, the Bavarian Danube (Pfelling gauge) water levels in the first half of August (1st to 15th):

2018 - no sailing of 135m ships possible in the shallow parts of Germany, bad in Hungary as well. Figure range at Pfelling was 227cm to 259cm.

2019 - not too bad, sailing restricted, Hungary was okay as far as I know.

Figure range at Pfelling was 274cm to 458cm.

2020 - bad start, fine from 5 August

Figure range at Pfelling was 247cm to 557cm.

2021 - perfect

Figure range at Pfelling was 344cm to 497cm.

2022 - see 2018

Figure range at Pfelling was 217cm to 266cm.

2023 - perfect

Figure range at Pfelling was 322cm to 486cm.

 

Note the huge range in 2020, it brought the river to a high level that impacted sailing under the bridge at Passau. This made the graph look like this:

 

That is not considered bad flooding, it is a regular occurrence, it is just that one bridge at Passau does not have enough headroom for ships with a high superstructure. The surge took the river less than 24 hours to get from "fine" to "not sailing under the bridge".

 

So how did the month of August progress in those years, was the second half different?

2018 - no, just as bad

2019 - fluctuating and minimally better

2020 - after the surge the river went down maddeningly fast to a too low level for many ships but recovered at the end of the month

2021 - levels continued to be stable and perfect for sailing

2022 - the level recovered fast and after a surge was "wobbly" as regards the ability to sail but okay for some ships

2023 - went high and at the end of the month a river traffic ban was issued.

 

So, basically, errrr, no way of knowing what the river at Pfelling will do from one week to the next...

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

To the present day. With the change in weather we have had snow return even to Rhineland-Palatinate. In Bavaria snow is still falling above 500m altitude. The temperatures will rise again soon. The rain has made Pfelling gauge rise to 411cm. That is a good buffer for spring days without rain.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

14 hours ago, notamermaid said:

To the present day. With the change in weather we have had snow return even to Rhineland-Palatinate. In Bavaria snow is still falling above 500m altitude. The temperatures will rise again soon.

 

notamermaid

 

I saw a post today from someone on the Bavarian-Bohemian border where he said he enjoys spring, summer, autumn, and winter - just not all in one day! and he added "So a sauwedder" ("such terrible weather" in Bavarian) In recent days ago they had highs well into the 20s C (70s F) and lows below freezing. When travelers wonder what they should pack one has to say to be prepared for anything. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

18 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

I saw a post today from someone on the Bavarian-Bohemian border where he said he enjoys spring, summer, autumn, and winter - just not all in one day! and he added "So a sauwedder" ("such terrible weather" in Bavarian) In recent days ago they had highs well into the 20s C (70s F) and lows below freezing. When travelers wonder what they should pack one has to say to be prepared for anything. 

Which is why I always tell DW "pack everything."  😀

 

Preparing for a trip in two weeks to Lombardy, Tuscany and Umbria.  Historical highs from 69-79.  This year's forecast?—low to mid '60s with a lot of rain.  But our experience is that whatever is forecast at this point for a trip is certain NOT to happen when we get there!

[Canal archive]

Don’t worry beautiful area you’ll fall in love it.

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

When travelers wonder what they should pack one has to say to be prepared for anything. 

It is a bit unusual even for April to jump so much in weather conditions. Still, the month is notorious for being unstable. "April, April, der macht was er will." is the saying, "April, April, it does want it wants to do". [at a whim]

 

I put my winter jacket back on this morning and went shopping in driving rain. We have temperatures that are a little bit higher than in Bavaria right now, not a lot and the wind makes it feel really cold and unpleasant.

 

notamermaid