Europe is currently suffering from a big drought. For weeks, we didn’t get enough rain. It’s the fourth drought during summer in a row. Last week, the official meter of the river Rhine, one of the big streams of Europe, in Emmerich near the border to the Netherlands reported, that the meter sunk under zero! That’s possible because level zero was declared at some time in the past and never before did the river has a lower level. Shipping is still possible but the ships are half-empty and have to sail at very low speeds. The middle of the river is deepened to being a road for the ships.
Saturday morning, I went to our state capital Düsseldorf. At this location, the river usually should be about 400m broad. You see, I’m standing in the riverbed and the river is missing about 7-8 meters of water here according to my GPS measuring at the current water level and at the regular water level visible on the ground.
You see the clouds in the sky. During the night from Friday to Saturday, some rain fronts passed in from the Atlantic Ocean. For a few hours, we got some rain for the first time in the last weeks (months). When I got up, most of the front already passed and only some drizzling remained.
In Bavaria and Austria, they got more rain than the soil could cover. Some landslides are the result and cause severe problems. I assume, most of the water will go to the river Danube and not to the Rhine 😦 But, a few kilometers east of us, they also got flood-rains. Train tracks are damaged by the masses of water. The railway company announced the repairs would also least last about 24 hours. On the pro side, we can say, that water will help fill the rivers around and the Rhine.
Take care!
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