Viking River Cruises has not published which ship sails this departure.
Every water level below is measured against a line we work out for the ship class named above, using
its design How deep a ship sits in the water. That depth sets how much water it needs underneath. of 1.60 m.
That is our own assumption, not a figure from the cruise line. If Viking River Cruises names a ship
that sits deeper in the water, its line would be higher than the one drawn here.
Latest readings: Monday 7 September 2026. Water levels change daily. Check again closer to your departure.
The Daily River Watch
Monday 7 September 2026
River levels this morning — not the levels expected on your sailing dates
Rain check: about 16 mm of rain is forecast above Kaub over fourteen days. The forecast reaches 20 September. It does not change any status on this page.
2ports far below the line
0ports below the line
0ports above the line
1port on lock-controlled reaches
3ports with no line to compare
0ports on stretches we watch no gauge on
0ports with no river transit recorded
4ports where the ship is not sailing
What the statuses mean — each one is measured against the level we estimate a ship of this class needs
▼ Far below the lineThe measured level is under half of Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class.
▼ Below the lineThe measured level is below Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class. It is not yet under half that level.
✓ Above the lineThe measured level is at or above Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class.
⚓ Lock-controlledLocks 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 publishedThe reading is real. Nobody publishes a level for this stretch to measure it against.
— No reading yetWe include this location on your daily schedule but there is no data available.
— No gauge on this stretchWe 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 portThe 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 sailingThe 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
Prague
Wed 11 – Thu 12 November · Czechia
⌂Not sailing
The ship does not sail on this day. Your itinerary spends it on land, so no river level applies to it.
The ship does not sail on this day.
Full details
Your itinerary spends this day on land. The ship is not sailing, so there is no stretch of river
under it and no water level that applies to it.
What the ship does
it does not sail on this day
Level reading
none applies — no river is being sailed
Sensitive to low water
not at all, on this day
Waterlogged reads river levels, and this day has none to read. What happens on it is a
question for your cruise line's own schedule, not for the water.
Day3
Nuremberg; Bamberg
Friday 13 November
⌂Not sailing
The ship does not sail on this day. Your itinerary spends it on land, so no river level applies to it.
The ship does not sail on this day.
Full details
Your itinerary spends this day on land. The ship is not sailing, so there is no stretch of river
under it and no water level that applies to it.
What the ship does
it does not sail on this day
Level reading
none applies — no river is being sailed
Sensitive to low water
not at all, on this day
Waterlogged reads river levels, and this day has none to read. What happens on it is a
question for your cruise line's own schedule, not for the water.
Day4
Bamberg
Saturday 14 November · Germany
⚓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 the canal's western locks and the upper Main. Rainfall does not set it.
What sets the level
the canal's western locks and the upper Main
Kind of water
where the canal meets the Main
Level reading
no level reading is published for this stretch
Sensitive to low water
far 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.
This is a real reading. There is nothing published to measure it against.
138 cm
Scale 0–200 cm
138 cm measured
Nobody publishes a target level for this stretch, so there is nothing to measure the reading against. We show the reading and the direction, and nothing more.
Water level now (7 September)
138 cm
⬆Rising — the river level rose 1 cm in the last three days.
Water levels are measured at the Würzburg gauge – German federal waterways gauge service (PEGELONLINE). No official data — the reading is official; there is simply nothing published to compare it against.
We do not draw a measured history graph for this gauge. The reading above is current and official; the archive the graph would be drawn from is not ours to republish.
Day6
Heidelberg
Monday 16 November · Germany
—No line published
This is a real reading. There is nothing published to measure it against.
319 cm
Scale 0–450 cm
319 cm measured
Nobody publishes a target level for this stretch, so there is nothing to measure the reading against. We show the reading and the direction, and nothing more.
Water level now (7 September)
319 cm
⬇Falling — the river level fell 7 cm in the last three days.
Water levels are measured at the Maxau gauge – German federal waterways gauge service (PEGELONLINE). No official data — the reading is official; there is simply nothing published to compare it against.
We do not draw a measured history graph for this gauge. The reading above is current and official; the archive the graph would be drawn from is not ours to republish.
The official forecast for this gauge
BfG publishes no 14-day forecast for this gauge.
📊BfG's 6-week outlook for Maxau BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-03
BfG's 6-week outlook for Maxau
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-03.
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.
BfG's own weekly figures for Maxau, in cm at the gauge.
Week
Lower
Middle
Upper
3–9 September
300
310
320
10–16 September
283
326
371
17–23 September
267
354
472
24–30 September
281
360
465
1–7 October
308
373
458
8–14 October
324
385
465
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.
Official forecast: BfG six-week outlook for Maxau — likely ranges for each week
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
Nothing published today can tell you the level on 16 November.Germany's federal hydrology institute. It publishes the official water-level forecasts and outlooks.'s daily forecast only reaches fourteen days ahead. Your call here is 70 days away. We have picked the product that does reach it, so you do not have to.
That product is BfG's six-week outlook. It is not a daily prediction. It shows likely ranges for each week. Each range is where that week's level is expected to fall, with the odds attached. The ranges come from many past-weather what-if runs, not from a single-line prediction.
The button below opens Maxau's own sheet directly. Find the week beginning 16 November.
From 2 November, this port will be fourteen days away. The daily forecast will then reach your date, and this block will switch itself over to it.
The measured level is under half of Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class.
3093145 cm
Scale 0–200 cm
63 cm below Waterlogged’s reference line
That is how far today's measured level sits below the line we estimate a ship of this class needs.
The level it is measured against is our own estimate, not a figure from the cruise line.
Water level now (7 September)
30 cm
How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship.
93 cm
Normal for 17 November (median for 2015–2026)
145 cm
⬇Falling — the river level fell 11 cm in the last three days.
On the record: For 2015–2025, we checked the eleven days around this date. Kaub’s lowest daily average was 30 cm, in 2018. Today’s reading is 30. That is below every one of the 121 readings in that window.
Water levels are measured at the Kaub gauge – German federal waterways gauge service (PEGELONLINE).
Current level
Past average for this date
WLSN — How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship. (93 cm)
Measured level below that line
BfG’s own 14-day forecast: their low-to-high range and middle line · BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1 · Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)
BfG’s own 6-week outlook: one block for each whole published week · 3 of 4 published weeks reach beyond the scale of this frame and are not drawn · BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-03 · Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)
Current and normal water levels. The solid blue line shows the current measured water level. The dashed grey line is the historic average of the water level from July 30th until December 2nd. The bold dashed line labelled WLSN is the water level a ship of this class needs — Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class: 93 cm. It is a gauge level, not a depth under the hull. Today's water sits 113 cm below the normal water level for this date. During your shaded cruise dates the normal water level is 142 cm on 11 November and 150 cm on 22 November. The water level at this location historically keeps rising over the next three months.
The official forecast for this gauge
📊BfG's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1
BfG's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1.
BfG's own daily figures for Kaub, in cm at the gauge.
Day
Lower
Middle
Upper
Mon 7 Sep
30
32
35
Tue 8 Sep
29
33
37
Wed 9 Sep
27
32
38
Thu 10 Sep
25
32
39
Fri 11 Sep
27
36
45
Sat 12 Sep
34
46
59
Sun 13 Sep
37
51
67
Mon 14 Sep
37
52
69
Tue 15 Sep
36
50
68
Wed 16 Sep
32
47
64
Thu 17 Sep
27
42
60
Fri 18 Sep
22
38
58
Sat 19 Sep
20
37
59
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".
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.
Official forecast: BfG six-week outlook for Kaub — likely ranges for each week
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
Nothing published today can tell you the level on 17 November.Germany's federal hydrology institute. It publishes the official water-level forecasts and outlooks.'s daily forecast only reaches fourteen days ahead. Your call here is 71 days away. We have picked the product that does reach it, so you do not have to.
That product is BfG's six-week outlook. It is not a daily prediction. It shows likely ranges for each week. Each range is where that week's level is expected to fall, with the odds attached. The ranges come from many past-weather what-if runs, not from a single-line prediction.
The button below opens Kaub's own sheet directly. Find the week beginning 16 November. Then read which band it sits in against the How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship. line on this page.
From 3 November, this port will be fourteen days away. The daily forecast will then reach your date, and this block will switch itself over to it.
The measured level is under half of Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class.
3093146 cm
Scale 0–200 cm
63 cm below Waterlogged’s reference line
That is how far today's measured level sits below the line we estimate a ship of this class needs.
The level it is measured against is our own estimate, not a figure from the cruise line.
Water level now (7 September)
30 cm
How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship.
93 cm
Normal for 18 November (median for 2015–2026)
146 cm
⬇Falling — the river level fell 11 cm in the last three days.
On the record: For 2015–2025, we checked the eleven days around this date. Kaub’s lowest daily average was 30 cm, in 2018. Today’s reading is 30. That is below every one of the 121 readings in that window.
Water levels are measured at the Kaub gauge – German federal waterways gauge service (PEGELONLINE).
Current level
Past average for this date
WLSN — How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship. (93 cm)
Measured level below that line
BfG’s own 14-day forecast: their low-to-high range and middle line · BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1 · Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)
BfG’s own 6-week outlook: one block for each whole published week · 3 of 4 published weeks reach beyond the scale of this frame and are not drawn · BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-03 · Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG)
Current and normal water levels. The solid blue line shows the current measured water level. The dashed grey line is the historic average of the water level from July 30th until December 2nd. The bold dashed line labelled WLSN is the water level a ship of this class needs — Waterlogged's reference line for a ship of this class: 93 cm. It is a gauge level, not a depth under the hull. Today's water sits 113 cm below the normal water level for this date. During your shaded cruise dates the normal water level is 142 cm on 11 November and 150 cm on 22 November. The water level at this location historically keeps rising over the next three months.
The official forecast for this gauge
📊BfG's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1
BfG's 14-day water-level forecast for Kaub
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
BfG issued this forecast: 2026-09-06 GMT+1.
BfG's own daily figures for Kaub, in cm at the gauge.
Day
Lower
Middle
Upper
Mon 7 Sep
30
32
35
Tue 8 Sep
29
33
37
Wed 9 Sep
27
32
38
Thu 10 Sep
25
32
39
Fri 11 Sep
27
36
45
Sat 12 Sep
34
46
59
Sun 13 Sep
37
51
67
Mon 14 Sep
37
52
69
Tue 15 Sep
36
50
68
Wed 16 Sep
32
47
64
Thu 17 Sep
27
42
60
Fri 18 Sep
22
38
58
Sat 19 Sep
20
37
59
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".
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.
Official forecast: BfG six-week outlook for Kaub — likely ranges for each week
Published by Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BfG).
Nothing published today can tell you the level on 18 November.Germany's federal hydrology institute. It publishes the official water-level forecasts and outlooks.'s daily forecast only reaches fourteen days ahead. Your call here is 72 days away. We have picked the product that does reach it, so you do not have to.
That product is BfG's six-week outlook. It is not a daily prediction. It shows likely ranges for each week. Each range is where that week's level is expected to fall, with the odds attached. The ranges come from many past-weather what-if runs, not from a single-line prediction.
The button below opens Kaub's own sheet directly. Find the week beginning 16 November. Then read which band it sits in against the How we calculate ship needWaterlogged estimates that a river needs to be 2.05m in depth to be navigable by river cruises. A river cruise ship has a draft of approximately 1.60m and we add an additional 0.45m above this. This number is not from official cruise line reports. Ships with smaller drafts or special permission may be able to sail in less water. The figure on the page beside this note is a gauge level, and a gauge level is the height of the water at one measuring station, read from that station's own zero. It is not the depth of the navigable channel, it is not the room left under a ship's keel, and it is not a ship's draft. Our line is a level we compare today's reading with. It is not a depth anybody has measured under your ship. line on this page.
From 4 November, this port will be fourteen days away. The daily forecast will then reach your date, and this block will switch itself over to it.
This is a real reading. There is nothing published to measure it against.
217246 cm
Scale 0–350 cm
217 cm measured
Nobody publishes a target level for this stretch, so there is nothing to measure the reading against. We show the reading and the direction, and nothing more.
Water level now (7 September)
217 cm
Normal for 19 November (median for 2000–2026)
246 cm
↔Steady — the river level did not change over the last three days.
Water levels are measured at the Cochem gauge – German federal waterways gauge service (PEGELONLINE). No official data — the reading is official; there is simply nothing published to compare it against.
Current level
Past average for this date
Measured level below that line
Current and normal water levels. The solid blue line shows the current measured water level. The dashed grey line is the historic average of the water level from July 30th until December 2nd. Today's water sits 5 cm below the normal water level for this date. During your shaded cruise dates the normal water level is 238 cm on 11 November and 250 cm on 22 November. The water level at this location historically keeps rising over the next three months.
Official forecast: Rhineland-Palatinate flood forecast centre — Cochem
Published by Hochwasservorhersagezentrale Rheinland-Pfalz.
No German federal forecast covers the Moselle. The state flood forecast centre for Rhineland-Palatinate is the one service that forecasts this gauge, and the button below opens Cochem's own page there.
Its own notice says a Cochem forecast is only possible above 241 cm, because weirs hold this water at a working level. Below that the chart shows a flat line rather than a forecast.
The risk this page is built for is high water, not low. For a day on this stretch, the thing to check is the notices — lock works and closures — rather than a level.
The ship does not sail on this day. Your itinerary spends it on land, so no river level applies to it.
The ship does not sail on this day.
Full details
Your itinerary spends this day on land. The ship is not sailing, so there is no stretch of river
under it and no water level that applies to it.
What the ship does
it does not sail on this day
Level reading
none applies — no river is being sailed
Sensitive to low water
not at all, on this day
Waterlogged reads river levels, and this day has none to read. What happens on it is a
question for your cruise line's own schedule, not for the water.
Day11–12
Paris
Sat 21 – Sun 22 November · France
⌂Not sailing
The ship does not sail on this day. Your itinerary spends it on land, so no river level applies to it.
The ship does not sail on this day.
Full details
Your itinerary spends this day on land. The ship is not sailing, so there is no stretch of river
under it and no water level that applies to it.
What the ship does
it does not sail on this day
Level reading
none applies — no river is being sailed
Sensitive to low water
not at all, on this day
Waterlogged reads river levels, and this day has none to read. What happens on it is a
question for your cruise line's own schedule, not for the water.
Rain on your route — calculated daily
Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 7 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 7 September to 20 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 7 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 7 September to 20 September.
Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 7 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 7 September to 20 September.
In past years, rain this light held the water level steady for a week or two. It never brought the level up to 93.
This is our reading of the rain forecast, based on what rain has actually done to this river in past years. It is not an official river forecast.
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
Bamberg. 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.
the same days · 7 September to 20 September · daily highs in °C
Rain forecast by Open-Meteo (commercial licence) · fetched 7 September 2026 at 05:16 UTC · covering 14 days, 7 September to 20 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
How to read every number on this page
"Water level now" is the authority's measured reading at the gauge named on this page. It uses centimetres from that The fixed zero point for a gauge's centimetre scale. It can sit above the riverbed.. It is a level, not a depth of water under your ship. It is not the depth of the The navigable channel where ships are meant to pass. either, and it is not your ship's How deep a ship sits in the water. That depth sets how much water it needs underneath..
"Water level a ship of this class needs" — written WLSN at each end of its bold dashed line on the graphs — is Waterlogged's own arithmetic on published reference figures for that stretch and the draft we assume for that class. It is our line, plainly labelled, and it is not the operator's decision to sail.
The seasonal graph shows two different things. Left of the today line, solid blue shows the levels that were measured. Right of it, the dashed line shows the historical average for each date. It comes from what these gauges recorded on that date in past years. It is not a forecast of this autumn, and we do not draw one. We show it because that average keeps falling through October. That is useful to know before you sail.
Where a line comes from the record — Budapest — the page says so. There is still no maintained-depth model published for the Hungarian Danube, so instead of guessing at one we set our level from what actually happened: in 35 years of readings, every cruise-season day below it fell within a disruption somebody documented at the time.
Where no mark exists — Kienstock — we show the reading and the official marks and stop there.
Where the numbers come from. Measured levels for Kaub, Cologne, Pfelling and
Hofkirchen are verified daily averages from Germany's official service for live and archived federal waterway gauge readings.. They cover 2015–2026 and
are topped up from the live archive. Budapest and Kienstock readings come through The European River Information Services portal. It republishes official river data from member countries.
and Austria's Danube River Information Services site for water levels and navigation notices.. For those two the solid line on the graph is drawn from our own recording of
that live feed, which began in July 2026, so it is short and grows by a day each day; the graph says where it starts.
The longer measured archive behind Kienstock is not ours to republish, so we do not draw it and we print no
record sentence for it. For Budapest that changed on 17 August 2026: the General Directorate of Water Management
gave us written permission to publish its own archive, and the average for each date now stands on
35 years of it. Each "normal for this date"
uses a 31-day circular The middle past value for that date. Half of past years were higher and half were lower. — the middle value, so half of past years were
higher and half lower. The averages use 12 years of records on the German gauges,
35 years on Budapest and 25 years on Kienstock, from the projection engine's own
doy_median_cm arrays. Record lines use an eleven-day window centred on the port's own date, across each
gauge's whole archive. Budapest's levels come from Országos Vízügyi Főigazgatóság (OVF) / General Directorate of
Water Management; where we work them into an average, those input data originate from the General Directorate of
Water Management.
Nothing here is a forecast. The trend and the graph describe measured moves that have already happened. We do not model your cruise and we do not give you a percentage chance of anything.
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.
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.
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