The measurements of the water level on the Rhine reach new record values every day. The situation near Emmerich is particularly dramatic, where a water level of zero centimeters was measured for the first time. However, the river has not dried up yet.
Because of the drought, the level of the Rhine in Emmerich has reached a historic low of zero centimeters just before the Dutch border. The value 0.0 was determined in the morning, said an employee of the waterways and shipping administration in Emmerich. That is a drop of four centimeters from Monday morning's measurement. As early as Monday afternoon, only two centimeters had been measured.
According to the information, the previous low was recorded on October 30, 2018 with a daily average of seven centimeters. At that time, four centimeters were measured as the daily low. Even if the actual level meter dries up due to low water, even minus values can be recorded with a second data collector in Emmerich.
The water levels are not to be confused with the lowest point in the river. The fairways for commercial shipping are significantly deeper than the water level according to the gauge. This only shows the difference between the water surface and the so-called zero level, which is not at the deepest point of the river bed. On Monday, the fairway near Emmerich was still almost two meters deep.
The Rhine ferry at Rees was discontinued because of the low water, as the ferry company announced. Previous negative records are also shaking upstream, most of which stem from the extremely low water in October 2018: in Duisburg it is expected that the previous low of 153 centimeters will be undercut this Tuesday.
At the Cologne level, the previous low of 69 centimeters may be set on Thursday evening. "As long as it doesn't rain, things will continue to go downhill," said a spokesman for the authority on Sunday. According to ntv weather expert Björn Alexander, it should hardly rain this Tuesday. Meteorologists only expect showery rain on Wednesday and Thursday night, and longer-lasting rain during the day on Thursday.
