High water on the Danube river

[steamboats]

According to news reports heavy rainfalls (up to 150l/sqm) and snow (2 ft) occured yesterday in Austria and Romania. Forecast is: highest river levels since 20 years in Lower Austria. Currently Mauthausen (below Linz) is showing 1 m above flood stage. Linz is currently shortly above flood stage. Passau is currently showing flood warning stage 3 (of 4) because the Inn river has lots of water. Korneuburg (above Vienna) is on flood stage too.

 

http://www.hnd.bayern.de/ (Bavaria, Passau/Regensburg)

http://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3DCFCFC3-6178767F/ooe/hs.xsl/was_internethydro_Online_DEU_HTML.htm (Upper Austria, Passau - Grein)

http://www.noe.gv.at/service/wa/wa5/wiskiwebpublic/maps_Q_0.htm (Lower Austria including Vienna)

http://www.povodia.sk/dunaj/de/ (Slovakia / Bratislava)

http://www.datanet.hu/hydroinfo/vituki/evizduna.htm (Hungary)

 

Check the webcams too

 

http://www.oberoesterreich.at/webcams/index.php?target=uebersicht_webcamdetail&camID=382218 (Grein, Austria)

http://www.panoramablick.com/index.php?nav_id=1639&final=1&kat_id=2287&cam_id=1848&lang=&action=showkat (Passau)

http://www.live-webcams.at/webcamlinz/images_cam2.htm (Linz)

 

The one in Vienna didn´t load.

 

steamboats

[Steamboatin]

Thanks for the info.

 

Have added the web sites to my favorite's list of travel web sites.

 

What web sites are available for this type of info on the other European rivers?

[steamboats]

Here´s the Vienna webcam, but the weather is too bad to see anything clearly. But it seems like there are a lot of cruise ships lying in Vienna today:

 

http://live1.truelook.com/german/face/sqface.jsp?name=/srtgermany/truelook2&func=live&overlay=default&width=640&height=480

 

Steamboatin´,

 

Here´s another link for water levels in Germany covering the Rhine, Main, Moselle, Elbe and Danube rivers

 

http://www.elwis.de/gewaesserkunde/Wasserstaende/Karte/index.html

 

I do have some links for the Czech Republik (Elbe, Moldau rivers) but I don´t think you meant those :) . I don´t have anything for France, Spain, Portugal and the Lower Danube River past Hungary.

 

Sorry, most of the sites are not available in English.

 

steamboats

[lrmorris]

Steamboats, what could this mean for our Budapest-Prague Amadeus river cruise starting September 16th? Thanks, Linda & Larry

[KiwiKruiser]

Thank you for the information, I have looked at the web sites and web cams. Doesn't look good. I too would be interested in how these conditions will effect September cruises Budapest /Amsterdam. I have planned clothes suitable to layer, but wonder if we will need to rethink on coats and footware?

Any advice will be much appreciated as always.

 

Kiwi

[MomC]

OK--call me stupid, but all of those sites are in German with no English translation. Thus, I can't make heads or tails out of the maps. HELP!!

 

Question: when there are high water levels like they are experiencing now, do they usually last for days or weeks? We board the ship in Nurembug on September 23--should we expect to still have flooding problems? Obviously, if it rains, we will. I notice that rain is expected for the area for several days.

 

I have loved traveling all over Europe in the fall--looks like I may have miscalculated when to take this river cruise down the Danube.

 

Can someone give me some advice and perspective on our prospects?

 

Thanks,

Mom C

[steamboats]

How this current high water situation might affect upcoming cruises in September no one can tell you right now. It all depends on how fast the water is receeding, how much more rain is to come and some other factors. Actually it´s the captain´s decision which can be made literally at the last minute. The captains do get weather forecasts and current bridge clearances. They have to decide whether the ship can proceed or not. It does not make any sense to call your local TA/cruise company as they definitely don´t know right now (and won´t know by the time of your cruise).

 

I´m sorry but most of the websites are German only. I just can advise you to click on the map and the colored dots. Most of the maps are using green dots for normal stage, yellow for first alerts, red/purple for concerning high water situations. In most cases you can click on the colored dot or the name of the city to get a diagram showing the river levels over a certain period.

 

Currently the high water is in the area between Passau and Linz/Mauthausen. Sure the wave will move downriver and it´ll take some days until the crest will reach Budapest.

 

I´m sorry, Larry & Linda, but with Sep 16th there´s a good chance that you might experience high water in Budapest. Here are some webcams for Budapest

 

http://www.irisz.hu/large.html (not updated since Aug 14th)

http://www.budapestinfo.hu/de/webcam

http://www.raiffeisen.hu/rai/raiportal/ep/programView.do?pageTypeId=8649&programPage=/ep/program/editorial.jsp&programId=8704&channelId=-8365

 

On the last one I can see that parts of the Budapest levee are already flooded (not as bad as it was last year in April when we were to on our 23 hour river cruise - see my review linked in my signature).

 

Kiwi, this kind of weather is very unusual for this time of the year. I´d say some water proof footwear and raingear won´t be a bad advice. Temps are expected to go up again (we´ve been down to the mid 50ies this week or 9°C).

 

MomC, I think you´ve got a good chance with Sep 23. First it´s one more week than Linda&Larry and you´re starting upriver. There´s definitely no flooding in the Canal at Nuremberg (canals don´t flood). And as the water you´re cruise is going downriver. So the worst must be gone. You definitely haven´t miscalculated anything. No one can predict the weather at the time of the booking. As I said this is unusual weather.

 

I´m sorry for the bad news. But I think it´s much better when you´re prepared for this unusual situation. And you will enjoy your trip more having this information in advance.

 

steamboats

[KiwiKruiser]

I have been watching the weather forcasts for some time and realised the temperatures were dropping rather suddenly. It looks like we will have a wet cruise. Your comments are helpful and I will now leave behind some light gear and replace with something more suitable. We have a stop-over in Hong Kong on the way so will be packing for both climates.

 

Best wishes to you Steamboats and the other Danube Cruisers.

[mimie]

Steamboats,

 

Thank you for all the information and webcam links. We will be boarding for our Danube adventure in Budapest on Sept 28th. I will make some changes in my wardrobe choices. I am hoping that the weather gods will be good but will come prepared. Thanks again.

 

Miriam

[lrmorris]

What happens if the water is too high in Budapest? Is the river cruise cancelled? Do they bus us somewhere? This is not what we wanted. Should we plan for our own land tour? Thanks again, Linda & Larry

[nyfeds]

Hi Steamboats,

 

You always provide such valuable information. I really enjoy and appreciate your posts.

 

May the "sun gods" smile upon all who will be cruising the Danube in the next several weeks!

 

Editing to add:

 

Hi Linda/Larry,

 

If I may offer a suggestion. I would call either your TA or the cruiseline, directly, and inquire of a "Plan B" if the rivers are not maneurverable due to the water levels. They must have a game plan on the back burner. I hope everything turns out well for you both.

[steamboats]

Linda&Larry,

 

You might be bussed to a place where the ship can go. I know there are a couple of low bridges between Vienna and Budapest. So it might be that the ship can´t go to Budapest. If the water gets higher in Budapest there landing is flooding and you can´t board there anyway. All river cruise lines have some sort of disclaimer regarding river conditions and weather. So this is no reason for a cancellation (unless you want to loose your money). It´s an app. 4 hour bus ride from Budapest to Vienna so don´t worry about that. Usually the cruise lines are eager to do their best to please the passengers. They are fully aware that you didn´t book a bus trip. Anyway things happen. Like on our "cruise" which started in Passau and ended 23 hours later in Vienna with one shore stop in Duernstein. All the rest was done by bus out of Vienna. Nevertheless we had much fun and there were no complaints. Of course we all were disappointed. But our cruise line did handle the situation very well. It´s not their fault. They are loosing money by rearranging everything and they´d be happy to do the cruise as planned. I´ve been on several cruises which didn´t end up where they were scheduled to end up or where the schedules had to be changed for other reasons. That´s part of the river crusing fun.

 

nyfeds,

 

Usually the home offices do not know anything about the weather situation. Even if they know they don´t tell anything. They simply don´t want to avoid any discussions about "I have booked a river cruise and no bus trip".

 

steamboats

[lrmorris]

Thanks, Steamboats and NYfeds for your responses. Yes, we will try to arrange a Plan B for our trip should it be completely cancelled (and refunded), but should resolve ourselves to a possible "bus tour" through the region. Bummer! We did not do the hotel/land pre and post parts of the trip as we are doing them on our own, so if worse comes to worse we'll just train it between Budapest and Prague for a week! Still looking forward to a great vacation. We leave on Tuesday. Thanks again, Linda & Larry

[nyfeds]

Thanks, Steamboats, for your response. I try to be pro-active in my travel arrangements. Therefore, to be forewarned helps me anticipate and plan accordingly.

 

Linda and Larry,

 

Wishing you a Bon Voyage. Regardless of how your trip/cruise play out, I wish you a wonderful journey!

 

Please post upon your return. Safe travels and enjoyable times!

[retiredslug]

We too are watching the weather, if only to help us pack appropriately. After the long flight from LA we'll be grateful to get off the plane into almost any type of weather. We're also on the Amadeus cruise beginning in Budapest September 16--maybe we'll rename our trip from "riverboat cruise" to "riverboat/bus adventure."

[CPT Trips]

The cruise lines do not want to run a bus tour . . . they will do whatever they can, safely, to get the ship under the bridges. Our recent cruise involved the Captain taking on all the fuel he could and ballasting down to as little freeboard is safe to clear a bridge with just inches to spare. Most of the pax were up on deck late that night to see whether we would make it - a fun time!

The pax were joking that we would put extra people, from the lower deck, into each of the other cabins so that they could stay dry. Our Program Directors would not discuss specifics, but only said that there was a "Plan B and Plan C" in the event we could not get under the bridge.

[steamboats]

Linda&Larry,

 

I doubt that your trip will be completely cancelled. It might be that you have to be bussed from Budapest to Vienna. But at least the part on the Canal, Main and Rhine river is not affected by high water.

 

Anyway, have a great trip!

 

steamboats

[NorthernIce06]

Thanks for the great information Steamboat!! We are booked on Sept30 on Avalon Poetry, and are prepared to go with the flow. We have found in our travels to not let changes ruin the trip. We are also packing a couple of small umbrellas to go with our waterproof gear. We have waterproof not water resistance gear. Water resistance is fine if you can make shelter quickly, but we spent the extra money to make sure our gear was waterproof.

Thanks again for up to date info.

[steamboats]

I just checked the maps. The water is still on flood level in the Vienna ares (most parts of Upper Austria) but the flood has crested already. Most parts of Slovakia are on flood level and the water is still rising there (you can see the blinking light green and yellow dots on the map). The water is also still rising in Hungary but not flood stage in Budapest yet (but Ezstergom).

 

I have counted app. 17 cruise ships in Vienna. That is very unusual and looks like most of the ships stopped there because of the high water situation. Two ships were arriving.

 

So currently I´d say the ships can´t go downriver from Vienna because of the bridge clearances. They should be fine going upriver with the falling water.

 

steamboats

[MomC]

Steamboat,

 

I am so appreciative of your concern and willingness to check the water levels for those of us eagerly anticipating our river cruises. Remember, I sail on September 23 from Nuremburg.

 

Please keep us abreast of the conditions as things change--for the better or the worse. As someone mentioned, we can adjust clothing accordingly--as well as expectations.

 

 

Mom C

[trif589]

While the personal commentary and info from Steamboats is far superior. If you go to http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/ and paste in his German river heights website , the babelfish website will translate about 80% into English.

A way to stay informed between Steamboats updates ???

[steamboats]

Today´s update:

 

The crest is downriver of Bratislawa but still in Slovakia. Budapest is now on Flood Alert 1. There are still a lot of river cruise ships docked in Vienna.

 

steamboats

[lrmorris]

Steamboats, again thank you for your updates. As we leave tomorrow for Budapest (for our river cruise on Sunday???), we certainly appreciate it. Mom C, it looks like you may be fine on the cruise after us. Have a great trip. Linda & Larry

[gerena]

Steamboats,

 

Thanks for the info. Keep us posted. We leave on October from Bucharest to Budapest.

 

Has anyone eaten at the Busulo Juhasz Restaurant in Budapest--atop Gellert Hill?

[steamboats]

Looks like Linda&Larry are on the safe side for the upcoming weekend.

 

Currently Budapest is still on Flood Alert Stage I but the water has crested and it´s falling in Budapest. There are still some parts of the Danube river on flood stage in Slovakia.

 

steamboats