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Danube water levels 2017 and similar topics


notamermaid
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The Danube! One of the longest rivers in Europe and certainly a busy waterway for both trade and cruising deserves to have its own thread finally. :)

 

Unfortunately, I had the idea to start this due to a recent question about current water levels. It appears the Danube is a little high - it does not show on the official boards - and that causes problems with low bridges. Viking has swapped its passengers between ships and an Avalon ship was halted in Deggendorf.

 

What is not always clearly indicated is that a lot of passengers, those that dock in Nuremberg in fact, are not sailing on the Danube in that area but on the Main Danube Canal - a manmade fairly recent water engineering achievement celebrating 25 years of completion this year. There seem to be quite a few low bridges over it...

 

So just throw in questions about that area as well. And if needs be the Main seeing that people travel from the Rhine via the Main and the Canal to the Danube on the Grand European itineraries.

 

But the Rhine has diferent microclimates with different weather very often as it is on the other side of the European watershed. The areas behave differently and flooding on the Danube does not automatically indicate flooding on the Rhine.

 

As I am not so familiar with the Danube and local events over there I cannot answer specific questions.

 

For weather reports I quite like http://www.accuweather.com/

 

And now over to "our local experts in the area" and past, present and future cruisers.

 

notamermaid

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There have been downpours and thunderstorms in Germany which have raised the water levels a little. But a heatwave is coming up! The whole of Germany will see rising temperatures over the next three days (including today that is). 24 degrees is forecast for Bavaria. Hopefully this should get the water level down and reduces the risk of getting stranded before low bridges.

 

notamermaid

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Weather is unsettled here with the high temperatures having caused thunderstorms and downpours, also in Bavaria. The weather will continue like this and the temperatures have dropped.

 

Far down from New Zealand comes a trip report of a Danube river cruise that I quite enjoyed reading: https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/travel/danube-discovery

 

notamermaid

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I hope a past cruiser can help you a bit better than I can. Generally, early September is not too bad for low water levels (you will not get flooding) but it depends on how much rain there has been in the Summer and how much water has been retained from Spring flooding. The trickiest bit is the free-flowing Danube from Straubing to Vilshofen (upstream from Passau is where you can find them on the map) where the level can sink quite low. I could not find a graph for the German Danube showing historic water levels. Those graphs tend to be a good indicator. Last year low water started at the end of August and reached the Danube in Germany at the beginning of September with critical levels from the middle of September. But it was a little extreme last year. Posters last year reported low water but the situation eased a bit with rain after the 16th of September. September is a better bet for smooth sailing than October but for details of what to expect you will need to wait till nearer the date.

 

notamermaid

Edited by notamermaid
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Heading to the Danube in a couple of weeks...

Is anyone reading who has just completed a Danube cruise or is on one now who can comment on the water levels?

Thanks to OP and others for your insight on this to a first time river cruiser.

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What is Danube like in early September? That's when I'm doing my Viking Romantic Danube trip.

 

 

We cruised late August, 2015 from Budapest to Nuremberg on Scenic Opal. 2015 was a pretty dry year and we wound up ending our cruise in Vilshofen due to low water between there and Regensburg. Scenic handled the situation well and we have no complaints.

 

From the congestion in Passau I surmise that a number of cruises ended there as well.

 

Later in September there were a few posts about low water keeping some ships out of Budapest but that varied day to day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Does anyone have insight into December on the Danube? We are booked on Uniworld's 2018 Christmas to New Years cruise. Our first river cruise was on the Danube in early June and we were hooked! We did have a high water situation which changed our itinerary slightly.

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As noone has replied yet - unfortunately - here is a quick note about what I have been able to find. The Danube differs a little from the Rhine but the overall trend is the same. Both rivers are getting lower right now as the weather is the same more or less all over Germany. For December you will have a similat picture but the severity of a situation can be make or break for sailing. There is a cut-off point by the officials for sailing in flooding situations that differ from river stretch to river stretch. On the Danube in December 2012 there was flooding while December 2016 was almost a little too low for comfort. The 2016 scenario is the more unusual one. I could not find easy to read historic records.

 

Sorry not to be of better assistance.

 

notamermaid

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I roamed around official sites and the odd amateur one in German but was not succesful with anything remotely like a month by month graph. "Undine" is a great official page, the Rhine, Elbe and Oder are up but the pages on the Danube are "work in progress. It is a German language off-shoot for historic water related things by the "Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde" - the federal institute for hydrology. Sorry.

 

notamermaid

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Fred111 reported from Nuremberg (in the thread on the Rhine) yesterday: "We just pulled in for our tour of Nuremberg. Weather is still great. We had a little rain a couple of days ago but it did not hamper our trip. We haven't heard of any problems with low water and expect no changes to our itinerary."

 

Thank you for the info.

 

notamermaid

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Pardon my spelling but we left Regansburg last evening and will be arriving in Passau in about an hour. The captain said that the river conditions are perfect for sailing. Needless to say, we agree. The weather has been great and the cruising absolutely super. After Passau, we will be in Vienna on Monday. We could not ask for anything better than the conditions we have had.

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We are in Budapest and it's still 80 degrees each day (has been for almost a week). We leave tonight. No one has announced anything about water levels. Our ship just returned from Amsterdam without incident from what I can tell. We may see rain as we leave Vienna in a few days according to Weather Channel

 

Norm

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Thank you for your informative updates! Appreciate them, all the way from New Zealand. I followed with interest for our cruise AMS-BUD in Sept/Oct last year, as we had no issues whatsoever.

 

We have just booked another for Sept '18, AMS to Basel so I watch with interest once again.

 

Your snippets about life in general, and sights along the rivers are great too, so thank you :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you for reporting RDC1. What company are you sailing with? Sorry to hear your visit in Regensburg was cut short. You are now in the free-flowing stretch without locks that is usually the first to have low water problems. I hope you can "outsail" the problem. Vilshofen is officially at low water level. No rain forecast for the area tomorrow but the Isar will bring water as it is currently raining quite a bit around Munich, there is a thunderstorm.

 

Have a great time in Passau.

 

notamermaid

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Thank you for reporting RDC1. What company are you sailing with? Sorry to hear your visit in Regensburg was cut short. You are now in the free-flowing stretch without locks that is usually the first to have low water problems. I hope you can "outsail" the problem. Vilshofen is officially at low water level. No rain forecast for the area tomorrow but the Isar will bring water as it is currently raining quite a bit around Munich, there is a thunderstorm.

 

Have a great time in Passau.

 

notamermaid

 

We made it through without problem.

We are on Gate1 Monarch Empress.

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We are on Uniworld River Duchess. Just left Nuremberg. Told last night they are changing the itinerary to try to get through to Passau before levels fall further. This means the ship drops us in port and continues sailing so a long(er) bus ride to meet up with the ship again after tours.

We are nervous and awaiting updates.

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We are on Uniworld River Duchess. Just left Nuremberg. Told last night they are changing the itinerary to try to get through to Passau before levels fall further. This means the ship drops us in port and continues sailing so a long(er) bus ride to meet up with the ship again after tours.

We are nervous and awaiting updates.

 

Sorry to hear that, suja. The Danube around Vilshofen (that is on the way to Passau) has lost a few centimetres in the last two days. It is a critical phase, I hope they can sail along without the passengers and make it to Passau. The heat will mean a probable loss of two to three more centimetres. The 135m boats will all have problems, the 110m boats should be fine for a bit longer. But rain and thunderstorms are forecast for tonight in Bavaria, while unpleasant for some, it could help river cruisers. Let us hope it rains after all excursions when you are safely back on the ship.

 

Have a great time in Passau it is such an interesting town.

 

notamermaid

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Following

We are on Uniworld River Beatrice leaving on June 28 from Budapest to Prague

As I am not familiar with water levels, does it go day by day

Sorry to hear about the changes in your itinerary. I hope the rest of your trip went smoothly. Would love to hear updates

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