Morning readings · Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Will your river have enough water?

River Water Watch predicts water levels on Europe's main cruise rivers, the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, and Seine. We combine official gauge readings, thirty years of records, and a daily forecast into one number: the chance a cruise is disrupted in a given month. Use it to pick a safer date before you book, or to check a sailing you already have.

Two-ink print of a river cruise ship in the Rhine gorge, terraced vineyards and a castle above — Plate I · The Rhine gorge.

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Choose your departure date. We'll check every day of your trip against the river's shallowest stretch, using the live forecast and thirty years of records.

Today7 of 7 low-water gauges below their marksKAUB 12 cm · p0.6 of 30 yrsDanube catchment rain -51% vs normal

Today at the gauges

Gauge	River	Reading	vs 30 years	State
KAUB	Rhine	12 cm	p0.6	low
MAXAU	Rhine	296 cm	p1.2	low
PFELLING	Danube	202 cm	p2.9	low
KIENSTOCK	Danube	125 cm	p10.8	—
DRESDEN	Elbe	51 cm	p3.8	low
Paris-Austerlitz	Seine	94 cm	p2.8	—

Official readings from PEGELONLINE (WSV) and Vigicrues. Percentiles compare today with thirty years of records: p10 means lower than 90 of every 100 recorded days.

Rhine

Lower Rhine at Lobith p0.4

Lower Rhine at Lobith is at the 0.4th percentile of 30 years. Disruption conditions today. Rain over the Alpine headwaters (Chur, Basel) is 34% below normal for the past 45 days; the 16-day forecast runs 18% below.

Aug*

Sep*

Oct*

Nov*

Dec*

Jan*

Feb*

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Last five years, month by month

2025 (top row) to 2021: marks are months that hit low water · solid = a week or more

Fig. 1 · Chance of a clean sailing by month; numbers show % disruption risk. Water below the dashed line: expect rerouting. *Months use the live forecast; the rest use the thirty-year record.

Danube

PFELLING 202 cm · low

Danube, Straubing to Vilshofen is at the 2.9th percentile of 30 years. Disruption conditions today. Rain over the Inn valley + Bavarian Danube is 51% below normal for the past 45 days; the 16-day forecast runs 47% below.

Aug*

Sep*

Oct*

Nov*

Dec*

Jan*

Feb*

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Last five years, month by month

2025 (top row) to 2021: marks are months that hit low water · solid = a week or more

Fig. 2 · Chance of a clean sailing by month; numbers show % disruption risk. Water below the dashed line: expect rerouting. *Months use the live forecast; the rest use the thirty-year record.

Elbe

DRESDEN 51 cm · low

Elbe at Dresden is at the 3.8th percentile of 30 years. Disruption conditions today. Rain over the Bohemian basin + Giant Mountains is 20% below normal for the past 45 days; the 16-day forecast runs 60% below.

Aug*

Sep*

Oct*

Nov*

Dec*

Jan*

Feb*

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Last five years, month by month

2025 (top row) to 2021: marks are months that hit low water · solid = a week or more

Fig. 3 · Chance of a clean sailing by month; numbers show % disruption risk. Water below the dashed line: expect rerouting. *Months use the live forecast; the rest use the thirty-year record.

Seine

Seine at Vernon p3.6

Locked and rain-fed: the Seine's risk is high water under the bridges, not a dry riverbed. Rain over the upper Seine basin (Troyes, Châtillonnais) is 54% below normal for the past 45 days; the 16-day forecast runs 12% above.

Aug*

Sep*

Oct*

Nov*

Dec*

Jan*

Feb*

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Last five years, month by month

2025 (top row) to 2021: marks are months that hit high water · solid = a week or more

Fig. 4 · Chance of a clean sailing by month; numbers show % disruption risk. Water below the dashed line: expect rerouting. *Months use the live forecast; the rest use the thirty-year record.

How to read the figures

Each column is a month. The blue is the chance that month sails without disruption, so a full column is a comfortable booking. Water under the dashed line means ship swaps and bus days become likely; the hatching shows how far short the water falls.

Months marked * use the live forecast, which runs about seven months out. Beyond that, the level is the thirty-year record for that month. Every figure is updated each morning.

We watch the exact stretches where cruises fail: the Rhine gorge at Kaub, the free-flowing Danube reaches, the Elbe at Dresden. Not city averages. How it works.