Rhine water levels 2023 and similar topics

[Furball83]

Interesting thread. I’ve been on the Danube before, but I’m on a Viking river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam in mid-September, so will have to watch here. Never been that route and doing pre and post stays.

[notamermaid]

9 hours ago, Furball83 said:

I’m on a Viking river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam in mid-September, so will have to watch here.

Thanks for saying hello. I know someone in your town who I have dubbed "my friend in Charlotte" here on CC. Hope to see him this year or next when he visits my area again.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[boyd_san_diego]

I was hoping to find current river conditions, but this thread seems to have deviated a lot from the subject.

We leave a week from today for our Viking "Paris to the Swiss Alps" excursion.  We're cruising from Basel to Trier on the Rhine and Moselle.  Hopefully, the water will be decent.  We cruised Viking's Grand European in 2019 and the water levels were very high.  We barely got through the bridges with the sun deck down almost the entire trip.

I'm also concerned about a Germany transit strike, for any coach trips, but it looks like it was just yesterday. https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/strike-over-pay-paralyzes-rail-air-travel-in-germany/

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, boyd_san_diego said:

I was hoping to find current river conditions, but this thread seems to have deviated a lot from the subject.

No news is good news. Thanks for saying hello. A few posts back I said that everything looks good along the Rhine for days to come and it still looks that way.

 

Maxau has seen a slight adjustment, here meaning the worst case scenario stays below flooding level. Kaub is very good for many days to come anyway, it will see a rise, but is not going to be drastic. Current levels: Maxau 509cm, Kaub 245cm. Lake Constance was a bit on the low side, but is filling nicely now. My impression is that snow melt is a little slower than last year, we have not had a very warm spell last week or this week (yet). It is rainy, grey and a bit cool. Tomorrow will see more sunshine and the temperatures rise, possibly to 16 or 17 Celsius in the valley. Rain will continue for a few days.

 

The strike in Germany was only for one day, so as long as the French "behave" in that respect we should not see any delays at the locks.

 

Should nothing unusual happen in between, update coming together with the report on the situation in March, i.e. beginning of April.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

I think so far I have not posted it yet in 2023 - the notorious Kaub gauge. You sail past this in the Rhine Gorge, "address" is Rhine kilometre 546.2 on the right bank. The building: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Kaub

On the wall you can see the markings I and II. They denote first level of flooding and second level of flooding. When the level reaches the second one all river traffic stops in that section of the Rhine.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

7 hours ago, notamermaid said:

I think so far I have not posted it yet in 2023 - the notorious Kaub gauge. You sail past this in the Rhine Gorge, "address" is Rhine kilometre 546.2 on the right bank. The building: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Kaub

On the wall you can see the markings I and II. They denote first level of flooding and second level of flooding. When the level reaches the second one all river traffic stops in that section of the Rhine.

 

notamermaid

 

notamermaid,  I am not sure if we talked about this before, but it appears to me that the numbers on the Latten are for 10 centimeter intervals. Therefore add a zero to each number to get the Pegel. Is that right? 

Are all the Pegellatten on the Rhine marked this way?  

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

notamermaid,  I am not sure if we talked about this before, but it appears to me that the numbers on the Latten are for 10 centimeter intervals. Therefore add a zero to each number to get the Pegel. Is that right? 

Are all the Pegellatten on the Rhine marked this way?  

Interesting, I think we haven't. Found the explanation, here it is, scroll to Pegellatte and Pegelablesung: http://www.pegeldeutschland.de/pegel.html

It tells you how to read them. Not sure, but I think on the Rhine these days the physical marker, "Pegellatte", are all yellow, could not find that exact info, it may be in the text, though. They used a photo from Trier, so it may be the same on other German rivers. They are either vertical or placed along a staircase, i.e. following the steps down into the water.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[RDVIK2016]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Interesting, I think we haven't. Found the explanation, here it is, scroll to Pegellatte and Pegelablesung: http://www.pegeldeutschland.de/pegel.html

It tells you how to read them. Not sure, but I think on the Rhine these days the physical marker, "Pegellatte", are all yellow, could not find that exact info, it may be in the text, though. They used a photo from Trier, so it may be the same on other German rivers. They are either vertical or placed along a staircase, i.e. following the steps down into the water.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thank you, notamermaid!  That website has so much good information.   RDVIK (Bill)

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Thank you, notamermaid!  That website has so much good information.   RDVIK (Bill)

My pleasure. Fun to roam around the website, translating may be a bit tricky with an online engine. Hope it works okay. I like the depictions of the river terrain and relation of gauges and how gauge towers work a lot.

 

Brief return to Nickenich and the volcanic Eifel. While I was in the car (as a passenger) I had a good look round the countryside on that day and noticed the old pumice mining fields. That was and is done overground, meaning you just take the top soil layer off and there is the "white gold". That is what pumice was called during the housing boom after WWII. It is an odd landscape at times with a large amount of companies and factories with open cast mines, stone storage facilities, shopping at the warehouses and concrete making. There are several disused buildings of a particular shape. There is a reason for these company work buildings to look like that but I do not know it. This is what I mean, the pumice museum in Kaltenengers:

https://youtu.be/u88MVyOb920

 

Not a rock face of the Rhine Gorge type or a vineyard in sight - at least not on this trip.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by notamermaid
grammar

[notamermaid]

The Viva Two, the latest river cruise ship to sail "my" river, is indeed sailing. I was hoping to spot here on a webcam but missed her yesterday.

 

Tomorrow another ship will join the ever growing fleet of river cruise ships. The MS Alisa of Phoenix Reisen has her christening tomorrow afternoon in Bonn and will depart for a two night cruise upstream to Rüdesheim and back. Alas, work schedule will not allow me to be on board even only for a two-nighter.

 

It will not be the last christening this Spring.

 

If you would like to do some ship spotting, the feratel webcam (among others along the river) on Koblenz Ehrenbreitstein Fortress is very good: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/koblenz.html

 

notamermaid

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by notamermaid
correction

[notamermaid]

Nearly forgot to post this. This weekend Koblenz will be full of chocolate: https://www.championnat-du-chocolat.info/

A chocolatier competition in the palace. Should you happen to be in the vicinity.

 

notamermaid

 

[Penland]

Just now, Penland said:

 

Are the French still ‘behaving’? We will be on the Rhine this coming week going from Speyer to Strasbourg to Breisach. 

[notamermaid]

51 minutes ago, Penland said:

Are the French still ‘behaving’? We will be on the Rhine this coming week going from Speyer to Strasbourg to Breisach. 

Paris is a bit of a hot spot and will continue to be so I think we can all assume. There are strikes announced for the SNCF (trains) and there may be a bit more happening over Easter. Cannot see any strikes mentioned along the river but I will not rule it out that there will be.

 

Edit: German news says that airport personnel could be on strike this coming weekend. What I read about Easter is a "general strike", on Thursday, 6 April, which will include trains.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by notamermaid

[CastleCritic]

Paris will probably always be a hotspot.  I was there last May 1 to start my last cruse and we lost nearly half the city to scheduled riots(literally) .  Was quiet over by the Eiffel Tower where the ship was but we never saw the Arc de Triomphe or pretty much anything on that side of the river. 

[notamermaid]

Something a bit different. Mainz, a very old city and relatively popular river cruise port, is home to a television channel. The ZDF, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, aired its first ever programme on 1 April 1963, 60 years ago tomorrow. The broadcaster will be celebrating for a whole week with special programmes. The following day is the birthday of the animated figures that have turned into beloved icons: the Mainzelmännchen. For 60 years they have been adding fun as fillers in the commercials section of the television station. The six characters have become so much a part of Mainz that they have a monument in town and one of them, "Det", is depicted on some pedestrian traffic lights. See if you can spot him when you are in Mainz: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mainzelmaenchen-ampel-traffic-lights

 

Mainz has also been in the news today due to an investor digging a big whole in the city centre - but I will get to that when I have a bit more time.

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

YEP! the guide when I was in Mainz pointed out the signal man.  Pretty sure the tv studio too, they were pretty proud of it.

[notamermaid]

18 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

YEP! the guide when I was in Mainz pointed out the signal man.

Lovely. Did not mention this as I thought Atlas Obscura would say, but it does not seem to be in the text: Mainzelmännchen is the Heinzelmännchen fairy-tale characters' term combined with the city name Mainz. I am sure you will hear all about the Cologne Heinzelmännchen from your guide in that city, folks.

 

Update on river levels coming tomorrow. Weather unsettled, windy with rain on and off.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Here she is, the brand new MS Alisa: https://magazin.phoenixreisen.com/flaschenpost/taufe-von-ms-alisa.html

 

Safe travels always.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

We have slightly unusual constellation right now as regards weather and river levels. Mild flooding is happening along the Main. All the water is now draining into the Rhine, making the Middle Rhine valley levels rise, but the Upper Middle Rhine valley not in equal measure. Overall, the Rhine is doing fine though. To give you an idea of what I mean, here is a screenshot of the area:

The individual dots are the gauges, green is normal, yellow is elevated, orange is not good, red is bad, purple is abysmal (my laywoman terms). None of the latter two in the area thankfully. Should ease during today and tomorrow. More details and round-up of March to follow.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Here we go. This is March at the gauge at Kaub:

 

After a low in the figures rain set in and made the level rise fast to mean (MW line) and beyond, but did not reach flooding level. After the peak the level returned to the mean. Warm temperatures led to at least a bit of snow melt (the meteorologists can judge this much better than me) and the level remained pleasant. Rain in the last few days has made the level rise again and a high volume of water is coming from the Main right now. This will continue and we will also see the prolonged rain of yesterday and today in a part of Baden-Würrtemberg have an affect at Kaub. It is not enough to make Maxau gauge in the Upper Rhine valley rise to high levels (it is due to peak later today), also seeing that more will drain into the Rhine downstream from that gauge than upstream from there. Kaub will rise in the early hours of 4 April to a level above 380cm most likely. For now this looks still okay, flooding mark I is at 460cm.

 

Rain is forecast to stop and while the day temperatures could still reach double digits the nights will be cold again and early mornings in some parts of the valley may be frosty. Get the gloves out again for those 8.30am excursions!

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

🥶🥶

[notamermaid]

The forecast for the weather was about right for the Middle Rhine valley. The rain has stopped today, it is sunny and on the cool side in the mornings.

 

Forecast for the river has been adjusted downward. Kaub is now expected to stay below 360cm tomorrow and peak some time during the morning. The levels will also fall a bit faster, so Kaub is very likely to fall below 200cm next week. For the next ten days this looks all rather splendid. There will a bit of wind and rain but it looks to be a settled week overall and I think we can look forward to good Easter weather.

 

So let us have a look at Mainz again, the Roman Mogontiacum. The city is over 2000 years old and when the Romans first came to the area they encountered the local tribe. The Romans just took the established word "Mogon" used for the place and changed it to their needs. If you want to take a deep dive into Roman history have a look here: https://www.livius.org/articles/place/mogontiacum-mainz/

Otherwise, let us just say that Mainz continued as an important cultural centre after the Roman Empire ended and also became a religious centre, just like Trier and Cologne. And that is where the recent excavations in the big hole for a new shopping centre (actually a rebuilt after the old one was knocked down) come in. It attracted media attention beyond the standard archaeological realms. Explanation to follow.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[twototravel]

Anyone currently cruising the Rhine? We will be on Gate One's Monarch Empress next month sailing from Basel to Amsterdam. Hoping since it is early in the season that there won't be any river issues.

[CastleCritic]

21 minutes ago, twototravel said:

Anyone currently cruising the Rhine? We will be on Gate One's Monarch Empress next month sailing from Basel to Amsterdam. Hoping since it is early in the season that there won't be any river issues.

Hope you have a good cruise

 

With the river where it is now, everything looks good.  Obviously it could just rain a ton and there be flooding but low water looks very unlikely (and would be early in the year normally).

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, twototravel said:

Anyone currently cruising the Rhine? We will be on Gate One's Monarch Empress next month sailing from Basel to Amsterdam. Hoping since it is early in the season that there won't be any river issues.

Have a great cruise. Ships are going up and down the river, the season is now in full swing. Would be fun to hear from someone currently cruising.

2 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

 Obviously it could just rain a ton and there be flooding but low water looks very unlikely (and would be early in the year normally).

Yes it could rain a lot, no way of knowing yet what May will bring. The river could be a bit on the low side, which you would then read about in the business papers, but that is not real low water for river cruise ships. It refers to barges reducing their load.

 

notamermaid