Rhine water levels 2024 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The conditions appear to have improved on the French section already so that is good for the next stretch across the border in Germany.

We should have a look at the French river and the Grand Canal d'Alsace. This is what the flood vigilance is showing tonight:

The green line furthest to the right is the Rhine river. See that one section is on yellow still. A couple of days ago the whole green Rhine was on yellow, too. So that is better now. Running North almost parallel to the Rhine is the river Ill (capital I, two small ll). At the top in the screenshot it reaches Strasbourg before joining the Rhine a little bit downstream. The city is actually not on the modern-day Rhine, that is, the old town is not and no river cruise ships dock in town. Both rivers have been heavily engineered so both the Ill after it has left the picturesque old town and the Rhine with its harbour at Kehl on the German side, where a lot of river cruise ships dock. Strasbourg administration has of course harbours out of town and river cruise ships can dock in these (industrial/commercial) places.

 

You can see it here on marinetraffic.com:

The blue dots are either river cruise ships or excursion boats.

 

The Ill is only navigable in a very small section for motorized vessels (excursion boats and those using the canals coming off the Rhine). Otherwise it can only be used by canoes, etc.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Monday I was asked about conditions on the river, as regards sailing on 1st July. With being two days closer to the date, let us have a look. The hot weather is already causing thunderstorms in the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest. With rain falling also East of Lake Constance, that is staying above 500cm. With no rain having fallen in the Upper Rhine valley, Maxau gauge is having a real dip, down to 660cm. It will not leave flood vigilance and is likely to go up again during the evening. The modelling for the next three days puts the Upper Rhine valley on high but manageable levels, with the thunderstorms having an impact that will be considerable but not substantial enough to cause problems. Note that the river is officially high on the High Rhine so there may be minor adjustments in the Basel area that I cannot know about.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

It has certainly been hotting up and for today the authorities have put much of Germany on heat warning level 1. It is basically summer really. But they like to keep us informed. If you are out and about do have water ready and sun protection is a very good idea. During the day we will be moving towards thunderstorms. Those warnings are for the Eastern side of the Neckar and around the "young" Danube basin, etc.. So that water will at its Northern end of the band of clouds go to the Main, in the middle to the Danube and at the Southern end to the Rhine via the Eastern tributaries feeding Lake Constance. We will see how that develops. It looks to me as if the computer modelling has been amended taking into account that more rain clouds are moving East of the Rhine valley rather than feeding the Rhine and its Upper Rhine valley tributaries directly. So that is good for sailing.

 

In other news: yesterday, the Olympic Flame came to France. It was carried over the border from Weil to Huningue on the Dreiländerbrücke, the "Bridge of three Countries". Here is a German report, you can probably find something in English, too: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/suedbaden/olympisches-feuer-in-baden-wuerttemberg-weil-am-rhein-100.html

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Brief update. Thunderstorms so far not having a real impact. Maxau gauge high but looking relatively stable over the next three days.

 

notamermaid