Rhine · km 546.2
Kaub gauge — Rhine 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 Loreley narrows — free-flowing, shallow, and the tightest point on the Rhine for a loaded ship. When European barge traffic watches one number, it is this one.
Right now
Kaub Rhine
15 cm falling 10 centimetres over 72 hours falling 10 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.
78 cm below the 93 cm line a ship of this class needs. Waterlogged's estimate of the level a ship of this class needs, using an assumed 1.60 m draught. Derived from the published reference pair on file for this gauge.
Derived from the published reference pair on file for this gauge. Computed using an assumed 1.60 m draught unless a cruise line is selected. Reference basis on file: GlW referenced to 2002 (BfG 2026, Anlage A, Table A-1).
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's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-20 GMT+1
BfG's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG). BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-20 GMT+1.
| Day | Lower | Middle | Upper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 21 Sep | 12 | 14 | 17 |
| Tue 22 Sep | 13 | 16 | 19 |
| Wed 23 Sep | 9 | 13 | 18 |
| Thu 24 Sep | 7 | 12 | 17 |
| Fri 25 Sep | 6 | 11 | 17 |
| Sat 26 Sep | 5 | 11 | 18 |
| Sun 27 Sep | 4 | 10 | 18 |
| Mon 28 Sep | 3 | 10 | 17 |
| Tue 29 Sep | 3 | 10 | 18 |
| Wed 30 Sep | 3 | 10 | 19 |
| Thu 1 Oct | 1 | 11 | 22 |
| Fri 2 Oct | 1 | 11 | 23 |
| Sat 3 Oct | 2 | 12 | 25 |
BfG publishes a low and a high figure for every day, not one certain number. Read the whole range.
The three columns are BfG's own 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles, in centimetres at the gauge. Nothing between them is filled in by us.
BfG does not publish values above 640 centimetres. Where a figure would be higher, their file says so and this table reads "above 640".
BfG's 6-week outlook for Kaub BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-17
BfG's 6-week outlook for Kaub
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 | 12 | 18 | 25 |
| 24–30 September | -4 | 7 | 19 |
| 1–7 October | -11 | 16 | 51 |
| 8–14 October | -12 | 31 | 96 |
| 15–21 October | -9 | 45 | 128 |
| 22–28 October | -2 | 55 | 137 |
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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Kaub's own forecast page — opens ELWIS
The gauge's own page: measured levels beside the German federal forecast for Kaub, in centimetres on the same gauge datum this site uses. It also links BfG's 14-day sheet and the six-week outlook for Kaub.
ELWIS content is OpenData and its terms permit links to its pages when the source and the address “www.elwis.de” are named. Waterlogged copies nothing from this page.
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Official German federal 14-day water-level forecast — opens BfG
The German federal hydrology institute's own daily water-level forecast, fourteen days ahead, with BfG's own spread and caveats. It covers seven Rhine gauges — Oestrich, Kaub, Koblenz, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg-Ruhrort and Emmerich — and no other river.
This product is CC BY 4.0. Waterlogged shows forecast values with the exact credit “Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)” and names the forecast's own issue date and time from the CSV header. The value never feeds Waterlogged's scoring.
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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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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) | 15 cm | — | 15 cm | -8 cm |
| 2018 | 56 cm | 2018-10-01 | 77 cm | 20 cm |
| 2022 | 68 cm | 2022-09-07 | 267 cm | 15 cm |
| 2015 | 69 cm | 2015-09-14 | 83 cm | -1 cm |
| 2020 | 78 cm | 2020-09-23 | 136 cm | 4 cm |
| 2016 | 97 cm | 2016-10-05 | 97 cm | -8 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: 0.0 mm · 7 days: 0.1 mm · 14 days: 0.1 mm — forecast precipitation.
Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence), model icon_seamless · fetched 21 September 2026 at 02:39 UTC · covering 14 days, 21 September to 4 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 ~55-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 32.7049 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 55.2853 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 CCNR 2022-II-19 / KWD 2020
- Not for navigation. Nothing on this page should be used to plan the movement of a vessel.
The Middle Rhine gorge chokepoint and the single most-watched number in European river cruising. Kaub read 36 cm on 26 Jul 2026 (PEGELONLINE, 20:15 CEST).
Spotted something wrong? How to report a correction · the full source matrix · this gauge in the threshold diary.
Where this gauge fits
The Kaub gauge is one of the Rhine 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 Rhine 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.