Rhine water levels 2023 and similar topics

[moonriver54]

@notamermaid Greetings!  We had a wonder flight to Zurich and a beautiful train ride from Zurich to Basel.  The SBB Mobile Swiss train app is SUPERB.  We arrived at our hotel late this morning and our room wasn't quite ready so we took a nice walk up to the river.  We were amazed at how clear the water was in the Rhine compared to the Danube last May.  I'm guessing that was probably a result of all the rain we had during our week-long Danube cruise.  In any event...it was a beautiful WARM day today here in Basel...with more warm days expected.  

 

I've attempted to attach a few standard JPEG photos of the Rhine however, CruiseCritic inverts each photo.  Maybe somebody knows how to stop that???

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by moonriver54

[notamermaid]

Welcome to Europe and "my" river and thank you for saying hello.

 

16 hours ago, moonriver54 said:

I've attempted to attach a few standard JPEG photos of the Rhine however, CruiseCritic inverts each photo.  Maybe somebody knows how to stop that???

I have had that problem a couple of times and fixed it via my computer but from a smartphone I am not sure what to do.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Change in weather pattern it appears. Less rain now forecast than had been. Kaub gauge on the way down. 110cm expected for Monday. Tuesday less, bringing 100cm into view. Wednesday further decline, probably to under 100cm. Thursday strong indication for further fall. We will review again on Monday.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Level at Kaub at 1pm was 117cm. Adjusted forecast for tomorrow 1pm suggests 114cm. The 110cm has been pushed to Tuesday.

 

It is sunny with the temperature having climbed above 20 Celsius. With the leaves slowly turning all shades of yellow, orange, red and brown will we get a "Golden October"? I would say it looks promising.

 

Right, I am off to enjoy a bit of that sunshine.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Rikboatman]

8 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Level at Kaub at 1pm was 117cm. Adjusted forecast for tomorrow 1pm suggests 114cm. The 110cm has been pushed to Tuesday.

 

It is sunny with the temperature having climbed above 20 Celsius. With the leaves slowly turning all shades of yellow, orange, red and brown will we get a "Golden October"? I would say it looks promising.

 

Right, I am off to enjoy a bit of that sunshine.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Hopefully it won't drop too much. Sailing out of Amsterdam next Saturday going to Budapest.

[notamermaid]

27 minutes ago, Rikboatman said:

Hopefully it won't drop too much. Sailing out of Amsterdam next Saturday going to Budapest.

That is of course the long journey with two potential problem areas. For Kaub it could go okay but it appears that the drop below 100cm is inevitable with 90cm high in the probability chart. But we will see tomorrow what the computers say. Oh, and it is time for the recap of September.

 

A quick dash up and down the river took me to Spay village near Boppard this afternoon. One of those places one normally sails and drives past. A pleasant trip. More on that another time. The place lies at Rhine kilometre 577:

 

Yes,it is not far from the Marksburg (marked in top right corner).

 

notamermaid

 

[Rikboatman]

Thank you! We'll hope for the best.

[notamermaid]

8 hours ago, Rikboatman said:

Thank you! We'll hope for the best.

The companies are so good at these plans B these days so I am sure it will all go smoothly. You can certainly look forward to stunning scenery and very interesting cities and small towns.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Let us have a look at what the river did at Kaub gauge in September:

At the beginning of the month we see the effect of the heavy rain we had but it is not as pronounced as on the Danube. However, the Rhine's levels tend to keep up better, in this the nature of the Rhine basin is different from that of the Danube basin. The level stayed on pleasant to satisfactory levels throughout the month and we are only now entering the realm of "splendid dry autumn weather that unfortunately gets the river too low" worries. So, October has started with enough water but the forecast is not good.

 

Kaub gauge is now at 110cm which is below the forecast for today. As a result the forecast for tomorrow is off. As it stands now we are to expect a further slow decline with 100cm being reached on Thursday. The probability chart gives us a very high probability of 90cm on 9th October with the risk of lower figures on the 10th.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge at 110cm, slightly above the forecast. Tomorrow should see the 100cm, falling below that on Friday. Decline is slow. Latest long range forecast not published yet so not clear what to expect for next week. It seems yesterday's cloudy and rainy weather has helped more than expected.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Cranes - I have mentioned Andernach, Koblenz and Bingen. We continue looking and sailing upstream, not much further, and get to Oestrich. At the kilometre mark 518.1 you can see the wooden crane, the mechanism is also a tread wheel. There is not much info in English that I can find, here is the German Wikipedia page: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oestricher_Kran

It is says the crane is in principal still fully functioning. Mostly wine barrels where loaded (would any one have thought anything else in the Rheingau wine region ). This is Oestrich on the regional tourism site: https://www.rheingau.de/villages/oestrich

 

notamermaid

 

[piginmud]

Hello,

I tried to search this thread but couldn't find what I was looking for.  At what level (meters) is too low for a ship to sale through the Rhine?  We are on Viking's Einar next month and I'm trying to monitor the water levels.

 

At what point are water levels too low too sail?  I have seen graphs, but honestly it doesn't mean anything to me if I don't know what "too low" levels are?

 

Thanks for any help you can give!

debbie

[notamermaid]

53 minutes ago, piginmud said:

I tried to search this thread but couldn't find what I was looking for. 

Hello piginmud. Thank you for pointing this out, I think I have not mentioned this for a while.

54 minutes ago, piginmud said:

At what level (meters) is too low for a ship to sale through the Rhine?

Ships always sail the Rhine and commercial shipping never stops as it is an individual captain's decision to sail or not. Barges and tankers can sail fully loaded or half or even less, so depending on size and load have a draft that will allow them to sail at very low levels. River cruise ships cannot reduce their draft as much. That puts them at a disadvantage so will have to stop sailing when commercial traffic still happens. Again, every captain knows how his (or her) ship will react and decide accordingly. This means that there is a "too low" for each individual river cruise ship that will vary but there is a range of figures at Kaub which indicates problems such as slow sailing or changing a docking location to swapping ships meaning not sailing the Rhine Gorge. It starts at around 90cm and goes down to 40cm, at which point a large chunk of the Rhine river cruise fleet has to stop sailing. In the case of the Viking longships the "adjusted sailing" usually happens before a smaller ship or one of the same size but with a slightly more favourable hull construction gets impacted. Again, your captain will decide for your ship what is safe to do. Even in the drought of 2018 the smallest river cruise ships could still sail along with part-loaded barges and tankers.

 

With that in mind let us interpret Kaub gauge. The level is at 107cm, that is enough for all river cruise ships. Saturday could see the level drop to 94cm. That is okay for all river cruise ships as far as I know but may well require adjusted sailing and perhaps avoiding a docking location which is a bit shallow, like in Cologne. Note that my assessment is based on reports from river cruisers in previous years. The latest long range forecast suggests that on 11 October the gauge may show 80cm which is still okay for sailing but much trickier and gets us in the realm where I could get in trouble if I say too much about sailing or not sailing - see my comment about individual decision.

 

Viking is very experienced in all this and I am convinced will make this run smoothly for you as testified by many past satisfied cruisers.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[moonriver54]

5 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Hello piginmud. Thank you for pointing this out, I think I have not mentioned this for a while.

Ships always sail the Rhine and commercial shipping never stops as it is an individual captain's decision to sail or not. Barges and tankers can sail fully loaded or half or even less, so depending on size and load have a draft that will allow them to sail at very low levels. River cruise ships cannot reduce their draft as much. That puts them at a disadvantage so will have to stop sailing when commercial traffic still happens. Again, every captain knows how his (or her) ship will react and decide accordingly. This means that there is a "too low" for each individual river cruise ship that will vary but there is a range of figures at Kaub which indicates problems such as slow sailing or changing a docking location to swapping ships meaning not sailing the Rhine Gorge. It starts at around 90cm and goes down to 40cm, at which point a large chunk of the Rhine river cruise fleet has to stop sailing. In the case of the Viking longships the "adjusted sailing" usually happens before a smaller ship or one of the same size but with a slightly more favourable hull construction gets impacted. Again, your captain will decide for your ship what is safe to do. Even in the drought of 2018 the smallest river cruise ships could still sail along with part-loaded barges and tankers.

 

With that in mind let us interpret Kaub gauge. The level is at 107cm, that is enough for all river cruise ships. Saturday could see the level drop to 94cm. That is okay for all river cruise ships as far as I know but may well require adjusted sailing and perhaps avoiding a docking location which is a bit shallow, like in Cologne. Note that my assessment is based on reports from river cruisers in previous years. The latest long range forecast suggests that on 11 October the gauge may show 80cm which is still okay for sailing but much trickier and gets us in the realm where I could get in trouble if I say too much about sailing or not sailing - see my comment about individual decision.

 

Viking is very experienced in all this and I am convinced will make this run smoothly for you as testified by many past satisfied cruisers.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

Good Morning,

 

We're aboard the Avalon Vista and sailed north past Kaub in the Rhine Gorge yesterday afternoon with no issues whatsoever.  We just docked in Cologne, Germany about an hour ago and will head further north towards Amsterdam later this afternoon.  Avalon is on top of its game as always...just a wonderful river cruise line!

 

I apologize...CruiseCritic inverts any photo I attempt to attach as you see below.  You can open the two photos of Kaub I've attached in your photo app and rotate them 180 degrees to upright.

 

Jim

[Canal archive]

How weird !

[notamermaid]

Kaub at 106cm. Minimal adjustment to forecast. Saturday to Sunday night 94cm. Slow decline to potentially 91cm on Sunday evening. Continued decline till 12/13 October.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge at 100cm. Saturday to Sunday night 90cm. Lowest level will most likely be on 13 October.

 

Excursion boats are now in the low season. The paddle wheeler "Goethe" as has been reported to me sailed the Lower Middle Rhine valley yesterday morning to the winter harbour at Cologne.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[piginmud]

On 10/4/2023 at 6:58 PM, notamermaid said:

Hello piginmud. Thank you for pointing this out, I think I have not mentioned this for a while.

Ships always sail the Rhine and commercial shipping never stops as it is an individual captain's decision to sail or not. Barges and tankers can sail fully loaded or half or even less, so depending on size and load have a draft that will allow them to sail at very low levels. River cruise ships cannot reduce their draft as much. That puts them at a disadvantage so will have to stop sailing when commercial traffic still happens. Again, every captain knows how his (or her) ship will react and decide accordingly. This means that there is a "too low" for each individual river cruise ship that will vary but there is a range of figures at Kaub which indicates problems such as slow sailing or changing a docking location to swapping ships meaning not sailing the Rhine Gorge. It starts at around 90cm and goes down to 40cm, at which point a large chunk of the Rhine river cruise fleet has to stop sailing. In the case of the Viking longships the "adjusted sailing" usually happens before a smaller ship or one of the same size but with a slightly more favourable hull construction gets impacted. Again, your captain will decide for your ship what is safe to do. Even in the drought of 2018 the smallest river cruise ships could still sail along with part-loaded barges and tankers.

 

With that in mind let us interpret Kaub gauge. The level is at 107cm, that is enough for all river cruise ships. Saturday could see the level drop to 94cm. That is okay for all river cruise ships as far as I know but may well require adjusted sailing and perhaps avoiding a docking location which is a bit shallow, like in Cologne. Note that my assessment is based on reports from river cruisers in previous years. The latest long range forecast suggests that on 11 October the gauge may show 80cm which is still okay for sailing but much trickier and gets us in the realm where I could get in trouble if I say too much about sailing or not sailing - see my comment about individual decision.

 

Viking is very experienced in all this and I am convinced will make this run smoothly for you as testified by many past satisfied cruisers.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

Notamermaid, you are a wealth of information.  Thank you so much for this detailed explanation!

 

Sincerely,

debbie

[notamermaid]

22 hours ago, piginmud said:

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation!

 

My pleasure.

 

Kaub gauge at 92cm, not looking too good for next week which I have already hinted at. Figures below 80cm are expected, range 65cm to 80cm. Lowest currently anticipated 14/15 October.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[piginmud]

18 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

My pleasure.

 

Kaub gauge at 92cm, not looking too good for next week which I have already hinted at. Figures below 80cm are expected, range 65cm to 80cm. Lowest currently anticipated 14/15 October.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

We don't leave until November 5th... hopefully things will be better by then!!!

debbie

[notamermaid]

Kaub gauge at 89cm. 84cm expected tomorrow.

 

notamermaid

 

[mkerner]

We are going the Viking Grand European Tour (*B to A) at the end of November.  Is there typically an issue with low water levels at this time of year?

 

Thanks.

[notamermaid]

20 hours ago, mkerner said:

We are going the Viking Grand European Tour (*B to A) at the end of November.  Is there typically an issue with low water levels at this time of year?

 

Thanks.

Not typically no. By then, the weather is cool and rain tends to have set in in normal amounts again with the level low to satisfactory for commercial traffic, i.e. normally not a problem for river cruise ships. Flooding can happen but is not common.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Kaub at 86cm. Holding up. 88cm expected for tomorrow, 82cm for Thursday. Just that tiny bit better than was modelled yesterday. At the moment it looks more like the lowest will be 70cm rather 65cm. That would be good.

 

Tons of ships sailing as always, now with the landscape changing to autumn fast. If I can schedule a short trip to the river I will post a photo.

 

Meanwhile, do feel free to share yours. 🙂

 

notamermaid

 

[mkerner]

12 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Not typically no. By then, the weather is cool and rain tends to have set in in normal amounts again with the level low to satisfactory for commercial traffic, i.e. normally not a problem for river cruise ships. Flooding can happen but is not common.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you!