Danube · km 2256.9
Hofkirchen gauge — Danube water levels
Free-flowing The river runs free here, so the level is the constraint: this is where a drought actually binds a hull.
The downstream end of that same unregulated Bavarian stretch, between Deggendorf and Passau. Read it alongside Pfelling rather than on its own.
Right now
Hofkirchen Danube
151 cm falling 12 centimetres over 72 hours falling 12 cm over 72 hours
low on mean low/high water (MNW/MHW) · normal on navigational reference levels (NSW/HSW) — the publisher's own classification of its own reading.
56 cm below the 207 cm published low-water reference. Published low-water reference for this stretch. The waterway authority's own published figure for this stretch, not Waterlogged's arithmetic and not a requirement set by any cruise line.
The waterway authority's own published figure for this stretch, not Waterlogged's arithmetic and not a requirement set by any cruise line. Reference basis on file: RNW (regulated low water) per KWD 2020.
Official forecasts and notices for this gauge
Linking is not endorsement. The publisher controls its own page, its own values and its own terms.
The official forecast for this gauge
BfG publishes no 14-day forecast for this gauge.
BfG's 6-week outlook for Hofkirchen BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-17
BfG's 6-week outlook for Hofkirchen
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG). BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-17.
Each line is one whole week, which is how BfG publishes this product. It gives no figure for any single day, and neither do we.
| Week | Lower | Middle | Upper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17–23 September | 154 | 161 | 168 |
| 24–30 September | 135 | 154 | 177 |
| 1–7 October | 135 | 174 | 228 |
| 8–14 October | 136 | 177 | 233 |
| 15–21 October | 138 | 184 | 248 |
| 22–28 October | 146 | 194 | 258 |
The three columns are BfG's own 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles from their weather-driven runs, in centimetres at the gauge.
Forecast water levels are from BfG. Waterlogged only reports historical and current data.
Every figure above is a water level at the gauge, in centimetres. It is not the depth of water under a ship and it is not a ship's draft.
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Hofkirchen's own forecast page — opens HND Bayern
Bavaria's own page for Hofkirchen, with the same three choices as its neighbours: no forecast, a twelve-hour forecast, and a two-day trend. Neither reaches a date more than two days out, so for anything further ahead read BfG's six-week outlook instead.
Waterlogged does not reproduce or interpret the values on this page. Bavaria's flood service asserts its own copyright over this presentation, so its forward figures are linked and never mirrored.
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Official German federal six-week outlook (weekly means) — opens BfG
BfG publishes this as a trend statement in weekly means, six weeks ahead, not as day-by-day cruise guidance. It reaches Maxau, Kaub and Cologne on the Rhine, Pfelling and Hofkirchen on the Danube, and Dresden on the Elbe. Open the official product to read BfG's own figures and caveats.
This product is CC BY 4.0. Waterlogged may show the weekly means with the exact credit “Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)” and the forecast's own issue date and time from the CSV header. We do not turn weekly means into per-day levels or passenger chances.
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ELWIS — German federal waterways notices and navigation information
The official notices channel for commercial navigation on the German waterways: closures, lock works and high-water restrictions in the authority's own wording. Its gauge pages also show the forecast for that gauge where a German authority publishes one, and leave the forecast column empty where none exists.
ELWIS content is OpenData. Commercial reuse is allowed only when the content is unchanged and credited “www.elwis.de”; ELWIS's own terms also permit links to its pages, as long as the source and the address “www.elwis.de” are named. Waterlogged may show a short quote word for word with that credit and a link. A paraphrase counts as an alteration, so we never rewrite notice content in our own words.
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PEGELONLINE — German federal waterways gauge service
The publisher of every German centimetre on this site, with its own station pages and its own classification of each reading.
History on this date
The five lowest years in this archive around this calendar date
Archive span: 2015 to 2022, in this archive · 5 eligible years.
| Year | Lowest in the window | On | Level at the end of the window | Measured 72-hour change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (this year) | 145 cm | — | 154 cm | -10 cm |
| 2015 | 178 cm | 2015-10-04 | 178 cm | -11 cm |
| 2020 | 181 cm | 2020-09-21 | 238 cm | -9 cm |
| 2018 | 183 cm | 2018-09-23 | 226 cm | 42 cm |
| 2022 | 185 cm | 2022-09-07 | 398 cm | 85 cm |
| 2019 | 188 cm | 2019-09-23 | 242 cm | 25 cm |
The window is the 14 days either side of today's calendar date. Years are ranked by their lowest measured daily mean inside it.
Measured PEGELONLINE/WSV stage data, licensed under Datenlizenz Deutschland – Zero – Version 2.0 (DL-DE/Zero-2.0).
- Measured daily means only; missing dates are omitted and gaps are never interpolated.
- This panel describes historical measurements and fitted seasonality, not a forecast.
- The day-of-year median is the fitted PEGELONLINE climatology in drift_params.json; it is not a projected level.
- Today's daily mean may represent a partial local civil day.
This is measured history, not a forecast and not an estimate of disruption probability.
Rain in the next 14 days
Rhine above Kaub — representative catchment precipitation.
3 days: 0.7 mm · 7 days: 3.2 mm · 14 days: 3.2 mm — forecast precipitation.
Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence), model icon_seamless · fetched 20 September 2026 at 08:35 UTC · covering 14 days, 20 September to 3 October.
Weather data by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · Representative catchment precipitation total from 8 weighted sampling points; a point sample, not an areal mean.
Rain may slow a fall or create a rise after losses and routing. Waterlogged does not convert this forecast into gauge centimetres or a cruise-disruption probability.
Read a rain forecast at the source
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Deutscher Wetterdienst — official German weather forecasts
Germany's national weather service forecast for the Rhine, Main, Moselle and Danube catchments.
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yr.no — free European rain forecasts (MET Norway / NRK)
A free public forecast covering the same catchments, if you want rain amounts today.
How rain becomes river level
What the measurements show
After rain ends, elevated levels at this gauge decay with a ~19-day summer half-life.
How quickly a departure from normal has faded, historically
- In the fitted winter runoff block, an elevated stage anomaly loses half of its remaining magnitude in about 20.2209 days as it relaxes toward the seasonal median.
- In the fitted summer recession block, an elevated stage anomaly loses half of its remaining magnitude in about 18.681 days as it relaxes toward the seasonal median.
These are level-anomaly persistence figures fitted on measured stage — how long a departure from the seasonal middle has taken to halve. They are not rain-response coefficients and they do not convert rain into centimetres.
The block names are labels on a fitted split of the calendar, not seasons. The later block extends through the end of the year, so do not read its figure as a description of December.
Educational fitted-parameter explanation only; not a forecast or climate projection.
Source, licence and limits
- Source: PEGELONLINE (WSV) — terms of use.
- Measurement time: every reading on this page shows the time it was taken, and a stale reading is flagged rather than reused.
- Transformation: the level is the publisher's. The gap, where one is shown, is Waterlogged's arithmetic and is labelled as such.
- Reference-data note: approx — verify vs KWD 2020
- Not for navigation. Nothing on this page should be used to plan the movement of a vessel.
Second reference on the Straubing–Vilshofen free stretch, downstream of Pfelling. Secondary gauge in v0: fetched and displayed on the status page, but the reach is scored from Pfelling.
Spotted something wrong? How to report a correction · the full source matrix · this gauge in the threshold diary.
Where this gauge fits
The Hofkirchen gauge is one of the Danube gauges we read. To see it next to the others, with the same reading and the same 72-hour move for each, read today's Danube water levels.
Worried about a booking rather than a number? Will my river cruise be cancelled because of low water? sets out what a low reading does and does not mean, and only the cruise line decides. To put these gauges against one particular sailing — your ports, in order, on your dates — start from the front page.