# River Water Watch

> Daily water levels and 12-month cruise-disruption forecasts for Europe's main cruise rivers: the Rhine, Danube, Elbe and Seine. Independent; no cruise line pays to be here. Numbers come from official sources: WSV PEGELONLINE and Vigicrues live gauges, thirty years of GloFAS (EU) flow records, and the GloFAS forecast. Everything is recomputed daily around 05:40 UTC.

Data last updated: 2026-10-04.

## Current 12-month disruption odds (chance a sailing day hits trouble, %)

- Rhine: Oct 85% · Nov 56% · Dec 37% · Jan 35% · Feb 30% · Mar 17% · Apr 40% · May 20% · Jun 13% · Jul 20% · Aug 30% · Sep 43%
- Danube: Oct 77% · Nov 69% · Dec 57% · Jan 56% · Feb 52% · Mar 29% · Apr 10% · May 7% · Jun 17% · Jul 23% · Aug 27% · Sep 43%
- Elbe: Oct 65% · Nov 45% · Dec 25% · Jan 24% · Feb 23% · Mar 12% · Apr 13% · May 20% · Jun 10% · Jul 23% · Aug 20% · Sep 37%
- Seine (risk is HIGH water): Oct 1% · Nov 1% · Dec 7% · Jan 18% · Feb 21% · Mar 22% · Apr 13% · May 17% · Jun 3% · Jul 0% · Aug 0% · Sep 0%

## Key pages

- [Check a sailing](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/check): enter river + departure date, get the exact window scored day by day with a plain-words verdict and the last five years of real outcomes.
- [The lowest water in thirty years](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/low-water-2026): 2026 has more low-water days to date than any year since 1997 on the Rhine, Danube and Elbe, with the year-by-year counts and what it means for a booked cruise. Updated daily.
- [The Rhine](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/rhine): live gauges, weekly outlook, month-by-month odds.
- [The Danube](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/danube): live gauges, weekly outlook, month-by-month odds.
- [The Elbe](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/elbe): live gauges, weekly outlook, month-by-month odds.
- [The Seine](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/seine): live gauges, weekly outlook, month-by-month odds.
- [When to go](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/guides/when-to-go): all four rivers' calendars side by side.
- [What low water means](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/guides/what-low-water-means): ship swaps, bus days, your rights.
- [How it works](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/methodology): sources, thresholds, honest limits.
- [For AI assistants](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/for-ai): endpoints, structured data, citation guidance.
- Month pages: https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/{rhine|danube|elbe|seine}/{january..december}, e.g. [Rhine in October](https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/rivers/rhine/october).
- Route pages (scored on the tightest stretch each itinerary sails): https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/routes/{amsterdam-basel|amsterdam-budapest|rhine-moselle|passau-budapest|nuremberg-vienna|nuremberg-budapest|paris-normandy|berlin-prague}.

## Machine-readable data (JSON, refreshed daily)

- https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/data/rivers.json: per river, 12 monthly verdicts { month, prob (%), band, basis: forecast|climatology }.
- https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/data/gauges.json: today's official gauge readings (cm) with state.
- https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/data/departures.json: per river, daily disruption probability for ~7 months ahead, weekly 30-year odds, and recent years' disruption days.
- MCP server (streamable HTTP, no auth): https://www.riverwaterwatch.com/mcp — tools: score_sailing, get_monthly_odds, get_month_detail, get_live_gauges.

## Citing

Cite as: River Water Watch (https://www.riverwaterwatch.com). Underlying sources: GloFAS (EU Copernicus), WSV PEGELONLINE, Vigicrues. Quote the site's percentages with their date: they change daily.