"Europe’s Most Important River Is Running Dry" (not to worry: the floods will be biblical)

From Bloomberg, Jan. 17:

The Rhine waterway, critical to moving coal, car parts, food and thousands of other goods, risks becoming impassable because of climate change.

Old school rent-extraction device

Kevin Kilps’s car ferry churns the waters of Germany’s Rhine river as he steers toward the bank opposite Kaub, a scenic village just south of the rocky outcropping named after the legendary siren Lorelei.

It’s typically a busy stretch of waterway. On a normal day, the commuter ferry vies for space with cargo barges shuttling supplies to factories in the south and German goods to ports on the North Sea as well as tourist boats heading for nearby medieval castles and vineyards.

After a prolonged summer drought, the bustling traffic at one of the shallowest points on the Rhine ground to a halt for nearly a month late last year, choking off a critical transport artery. The impact damped Germany’s industrial machine, slowing economic growth in the third and fourth quarters. It was the latest sign of how even advanced industrial economies are increasingly fighting the effects of global warming.

“You can see the water levels are lower each year,” said Kilps, who added extra flotation equipment to the 150-ton boat during the stoppage to enable it to finally cross the river again. “It’s scary to watch the climate changing.”

With its source high in the Swiss Alps, the Rhine snakes 800 miles through the industrial zones of Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands before emptying into the sea at Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port. It serves as a key conduit for manufacturers such as Daimler AG, Robert Bosch GmbH and Bayer AG.

When low water halted shipping this summer, steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG was forced to delay shipments to customers like automaker Volkswagen AG as it couldn’t get raw materials to a mill in Duisburg.

Constraints on the Rhine cost BASF SE around 250 million euros ($285 million) by pushing the chemical maker to use more expensive transport options. In a recent newspaper interview, BASF Chief Executive Officer Martin Brudermueller called for major infrastructure investments such as locks and dams that can release water to ensure shipping lanes remain open....MORE

Meanwhile, from the Associated Press, January 5, i.e. at least two snowfalls ago:

As Austria warns of snow, Germans, Dutch prepare for floods

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Austria are warning that more snowfall will increase the already high risk of avalanches, while hundreds of people in the country are unable to leave their homes because of blocked roads due to the severe weather conditions.

German news agency dpa reported that in southern and eastern Germany people were also bracing for further snowfall, while in the northern coastal city of Hamburg residents were preparing for a storm flood caused by a winter gale.

In the neighboring Netherlands, Amsterdam’s busy Schiphol Airport warned of delays and cancellations. Dutch carrier KLM canceled 159 flights to and from European destinations.
In northwestern Dutch coastal regions expected to be hardest hit by strong winds and wild seas, local water authorities began checking dikes to make sure they were not damaged.

We keep pretty good track of the water level.
Also castles and obscure poetry:

A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,
There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears....

— Caroline Elizabeth Norton

 "Bingen on the Rhine"

During the worst of the drought as the Elbe dried up the stones marking previous low water became visible:

"‘Hunger Stones’ With Ominous Messages Emerge in Drought-Parched Czech River" 

Engravings on a ‘hunger stone’ have been revealed in the Elbe River in the Czech Republic due to drought. (AP Images)