WaterloggedRiver Cruise Watch

The river's logbook for cruise travellers

See the map Daily sailing schedule 14-day weather forecast

Your sailing

S.S. Victoria · Dutch & Belgian Holiday Celebration

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises · departs Wednesday 23 December 2026 · Brussels → Amsterdam · 11 days

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Latest readings: Wednesday 16 September 2026. Water levels change daily. Check again closer to your departure.

The Daily River Watch

Wednesday 16 September 2026

River levels this morning — not the levels expected on your sailing dates

What the statuses mean — each one is measured against the level we estimate this ship needs

  • ▼ Far below the line The measured level is under half of Waterlogged's reference line for this ship.
  • ▼ Below the line The measured level is below Waterlogged's reference line for this ship. It is not yet under half that level.
  • ✓ Above the line The measured level is at or above Waterlogged's reference line for this ship.
  • ⚓ Lock-controlled Locks hold the level on this stretch, so low water rarely stops a ship here. High water, maintenance, closures, restrictions on the locks and the cruise line's own decision can still affect a day.
  • — No line published The reading is real. Nobody publishes a level for this stretch to measure it against.
    — No reading yet We include this location on your daily schedule but there is no data available.
  • — No gauge on this stretch We watch no gauge on this stretch of river. There is no reading for the day and no line to measure one against. We are not telling you the water is fine, and we are not telling you anything holds it at a working level — those are things we have not established here.
  • ⚑ In port The ship is in port on this day. Our record holds no river transit for it, so there is no stretch of river to read. That is what we hold, not a claim about where the ship goes.
  • ⌂ Not sailing The ship does not sail on this day. Your itinerary spends it on land, so there is no river level to read and no low-water question to answer.

A gauge level is not the depth of the navigable channel, not the room under your ship's keel, and not your ship's draft. The rain forecast further down uses one more status of its own, temporarily unavailable, when that feed is missing or out of date.

The official forward outlook

Waterlogged does not provide its own independent future river depth forecast. We show today's gauge reading and compare them with our own reference lines and other historic data. Where Waterlogged has received licenses, it includes river forecasts and clearly identifies the sources where they are from. Waterlogged provides direct links to the gauge forecasts from national providers. BfG has given us permission to show their six week forecasts.

Your daily sailing schedule

Below are the ports you travel to and the depth of the water, as of today's date, and how much water is needed for your ship to sail. A graph shows the median or normal river depth.

Two words will help. A A riverside station that measures the water level in centimetres against a fixed zero point. is a riverside station that measures water level. Your ship's How deep a ship sits in the water. That depth sets how much water it needs underneath. is how deep it sits in the water. This affects how much water it needs below the hull.

Day1–2

Brussels

Wed 23 – Thu 24 December · Belgium

In port

The ship is in port on this day. Our record holds no river transit for it, so there is no stretch of river to read.

The ship is in port on this day.

Full details

Our record holds no river transit for this day, so there is no stretch of river being read for it and no water level that applies to it.

Where the ship isin port
River transit on recordnone for this day
Level readingnone applies — no stretch of river is being read

This says what our record holds, not what the ship does. We are not telling you it stays alongside, and we have not worked out whether locks hold any water near this city, so we do not say either. On the days this route is on the river, the readings above and below say so.

Day3

Ghent

Friday 25 December · Belgium

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices

Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

https://www.elwis.de/

Day4

Hasselt

Saturday 26 December · Belgium

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices

Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

https://www.elwis.de/

Day5

Maastricht

Sunday 27 December · Netherlands

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: The Dutch authority's website for waterway conditions and notices. — Dutch waterway information

Published by The Dutch government body for major roads, waterways and water systems..

This is not a river-level question. Locks and tides control these waterways.

The Dutch authority publishes waterway status and notices at Vaarweginformatie if you want to look. Nothing on this day turns on a low-water reading.

https://www.vaarweginformatie.nl/

Day6–7

Antwerp

Mon 28 – Tue 29 December · Belgium

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices

Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

https://www.elwis.de/

Day8

Rotterdam

Wednesday 30 December · Netherlands

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: The Dutch authority's website for waterway conditions and notices. — Dutch waterway information

Published by The Dutch government body for major roads, waterways and water systems..

This is not a river-level question. Locks and tides control these waterways.

The Dutch authority publishes waterway status and notices at Vaarweginformatie if you want to look. Nothing on this day turns on a low-water reading.

https://www.vaarweginformatie.nl/

Day9

Rotterdam; Amsterdam

Thursday 31 December · Belgium

Lock-controlled

Locks hold this water at a working level, so low water is far less likely to affect this stretch. Other things still can.

Locks hold the level here, so low water rarely stops a ship.

Full details

The water here is held at a working level by locks. Rainfall does not set it.

What sets the levellocks
Kind of watera reach held at a working level by locks
Level readingno level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low waterfar less than a free-flowing stretch

Low water does not close this stretch of river; a lock failure or a flood would. High water, maintenance, a closure or a restriction on the locks can still affect a day here, and so can the cruise line's own decision.

Official forecast: Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices

Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

https://www.elwis.de/

Day10–11

Amsterdam

Fri 1 – Sat 2 January · Netherlands

In port

The ship is in port on this day. Our record holds no river transit for it, so there is no stretch of river to read.

The ship is in port on this day.

Full details

Our record holds no river transit for this day, so there is no stretch of river being read for it and no water level that applies to it.

Where the ship isin port
River transit on recordnone for this day
Level readingnone applies — no stretch of river is being read

This says what our record holds, not what the ship does. We are not telling you it stays alongside, and we have not worked out whether locks hold any water near this city, so we do not say either. On the days this route is on the river, the readings above and below say so.

Rain on your route — calculated daily

Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 16 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 16 September to 29 September.

Rain can raise the water level of a river but there is no fixed rule on how much it does. We only report how much the quantity of rainfall has changed the water level before under similar conditions. It is context, not a prediction of a river level.

Licensed rain forecast + what the water level has actually done before

The detailed weather forecast for your route

All rain forecasts use the same scale, 0–12 mm of rain a day, so you can compare them directly. Each column is one day, with its date at the top, then the sky for that day and the daily high in °C.

Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 16 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 16 September to 29 September.

The rest of your route

Locks and A dam built across the river that holds the water above it at a set level. Where one stands, the depth is set by the dam, not by rain. hold the water level at a set height at Ghent, Hasselt, Maastricht, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Rotterdam; Amsterdam. So rain is not a river question at these ports. That is why none of these has a rain forecast. What is left is the weather for your day in town.

AmsterdamNetherlands

date, sky and daily high °C

the same days · 16 September to 29 September · daily highs in °C

Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 16 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 16 September to 29 September.

How rain reaches the river — the rules we use the stages, the half-lives and the 2003 warning behind every line above

How rain becomes a water level

A river responds to rain in stages. A nearby shower may matter less than rain far upstream.

  • Rain fallsWhere the rain lands matters as much as the total.
  • Ground takes a shareDry ground can hold most of the first rain.
  • Tributaries bring it downWater arrives from different Side rivers and streams that feed the main river at different times. at different times.
  • The gauge gets a pulseA A short rise that has travelled downstream after rain further up the river. can briefly raise the level at the gauge.
  • Baseflow settles itThe slow supply of stored water that keeps a river running between periods of rain. is the slower supply of stored water. It decides where the level settles.

Why winter rain often does more

Winter ground is usually wetter and cooler. Plants use less water then. Less water also evaporates. More of the same rain can reach the river. In high summer, dry soil and growing plants take more water first. Less water then flows over the land into the river.

What "half-life" means here

The How long half of an unusual water-level difference has historically taken to fade. is based on past records. It is the time for half the extra height above the usual seasonal level to fade. It describes persistence, not how many centimetres a storm will add.

Estimated half-life of unusual levels at eligible route gauges
GaugeWinter-runoff blockSummer-recession block
Pfelling 17.3 daysdrift_params.json → PFELLING.blocks[winter_runoff].half_life_days 15.6 daysdrift_params.json → PFELLING.blocks[summer_recession].half_life_days
Hofkirchen 20.2 daysdrift_params.json → HOFKIRCHEN.blocks[winter_runoff].half_life_days 18.7 daysdrift_params.json → HOFKIRCHEN.blocks[summer_recession].half_life_days
Kaub 32.7 daysdrift_params.json → KAUB.blocks[winter_runoff].half_life_days 55.3 daysdrift_params.json → KAUB.blocks[summer_recession].half_life_days
Cologne 31.1 daysdrift_params.json → KOELN.blocks[winter_runoff].half_life_days 58.0 daysdrift_params.json → KOELN.blocks[summer_recession].half_life_days

Read the difference carefully. A longer summer value at the Rhine gauges does not mean summer rain adds more water. It means an unusual measured level faded more slowly in that set of calendar dates. The block names come from the parameter file; they are not weather seasons or a rain-to-level formula.

Rules of thumb

Use these to read a wet outlook — not to predict a sailing-day level.

  1. After a long dry period, the first roughly 10 mm may mainly soak the soil. Do not expect much change at the gauge before that.

    Source: waterlogged/rain_explainer.py → transfer_function.soil_absorption_first_mm.value_mm = 10; explicitly qualitative, not a fitted gauge coefficient.

  2. Look downstream after about 1 day Basel–Maxau, 1–1½ days Maxau–Kaub and ½–1 day Kaub–Cologne; Austrian Danube events spanned 60–118 hours, so there is no honest fixed Danube clock.

    Sources: docs/council_alignment/lens_hydrology.md gives Rhine flood-wave and falling-water travel times. docs/climate_evidence_wide_signals.md gives the "Travel time & Alpine share" event range and the no-fixed-lag rule.

  3. A routed rain pulse can briefly raise a gauge. Baseflow is the slower supply of stored water. It decides where the level settles.

    Source: waterlogged/rain_explainer.py gives the wording about a rain pulse in each season. The figures in the table above are the fitted half_life_days from drift_params.json.

That is the calculation you have just read. The licence turns this panel from a list of links into a daily reading. It still stops where the evidence stops.

Rainfall forecast is provided by a commercial forecast service. Waterlogged reports on how an amount of rainfall has historically affected the water level. This historical information is provided for illustrative reasons and should not be used for any prediction.

Rain is context, not a prediction of a river level. Nothing on this page turns millimetres of rain into centimetres at a gauge, and no status anywhere on this page moves because rain is forecast.

The official services we link to forecast the water level at a gauge. That is not a promised depth of water under your ship, and none of them publishes one.

Weather data comes from a licensed provider. Weather data by Open-Meteo (commercial licence)

How to read every number on this page

The numbers on this page stay free.

You are not paying for anything. The daily update — which includes a river companion on your sailing — is free to your inbox.

If you want us to read this sailing every morning and send it to your inbox, the Daily River Log Watch is free for your sailing. Nothing to pay, nothing renews. The last morning is the morning after you leave the ship.

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What you will receive

The Daily River Log Watch — free for this sailing

Every morning until the morning after you leave the ship: the reading on the gauge that governs your stretch, what changed overnight, and the river companion — the story of the water you are sailing on. Free.

Keep my email for this sailing only, so Waterlogged can send me the Daily River Log Watch for it each morning, free, until the morning after the sailing ends. No marketing and no sale of my address. Stop any time by replying stop, or delete my address on request; it is deleted no later than 180 days after the scheduled sailing. Privacy details: /privacy.

Do not see your sailing? We do not report cancelled sailings. Tell us which sailing we are missing and we will add it. You can also email info@rivercruisewatch.com with the cruise line, the ship and the dates.

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Day 3 · Ghent

Open the official river information.

Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices
Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.
Day 4 · Hasselt

Open the official river information.

Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices
Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.
Day 5 · Maastricht

Open the official river information.

The Dutch authority's website for waterway conditions and notices. — Dutch waterway information
Published by The Dutch government body for major roads, waterways and water systems..

This is not a river-level question. Locks and tides control these waterways.

The Dutch authority publishes waterway status and notices at Vaarweginformatie if you want to look. Nothing on this day turns on a low-water reading.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.
Day 6–7 · Antwerp

Open the official river information.

Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices
Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.
Day 8 · Rotterdam

Open the official river information.

The Dutch authority's website for waterway conditions and notices. — Dutch waterway information
Published by The Dutch government body for major roads, waterways and water systems..

This is not a river-level question. Locks and tides control these waterways.

The Dutch authority publishes waterway status and notices at Vaarweginformatie if you want to look. Nothing on this day turns on a low-water reading.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.
Day 9 · Rotterdam; Amsterdam

Open the official river information.

Germany's official waterway service for forecasts, restrictions and notices to skippers. — German federal waterway notices
Published by Germany's federal waterways and shipping administration. It publishes notices through ELWIS. / ELWIS.

No water-level product applies to this day. This water is held at a working level by locks, so there is no gauge reading that would change your day.

What can affect a day like this is a lock outage or maintenance closure. That is announced through ELWIS, the official notices-to-skippers channel — in the authority's own words, before anyone else repeats them.

For this day, check the official notices rather than the levels.

Open the official page (opens in a new tab)

We checked the direct links on 3–4 August 2026 (docs/bfg_deep_links.md). Waterlogged never re-dates or re-scores the authority's product. Where BfG has given us permission to show their figures, they are on this page above, under BfG's name and with BfG's own issue stamp; everything else here is a link to the authority's page.