Due to the extraordinary dry and hot weather of August 2018 the lowest water level in living memory could be seen along several great European rivers. As autumn has also been dry, warm and lacking rainfall, water level of the river Danube has dropped to the lowest points ever recorded in Germany, Austria and Hungary among others. On 25th October, 2018 38 cm was recorded on the Danube at Budapest at 9 am hitting a seventy-one-year-old record. The average sounding there is around 300 cm, the highest record was 891 cm during the flood of 2013.

Zero points of great rivers were defined in the 19th century: they were tied to the lowest sounding of a chosen year. So zero is only a reference point with the help of which relative water levels can easily be defined. If the water level of Danube was zero at Budapest, it would not mean that the river could be crossed with dry feet, as the sounding would be a couple of metres, even in that case.

Many, many strange things has emerged from the river because of extreme low levels of Danube. For example a car with the possible remains of a man lost seven years ago. Sensational treasures were found by archaeologists like pure gold coins or special guns. Ship wreckage, old war vehicles, gravestones, rocks not seen for decades, traces of old bridges have emerged from the low Danube. Moreover, the tunnel situated within the middle pillar of Margit híd (Margaret Bridge) which is always under water could be crossed with dry feet. New dry pathways and pieces of land tempted locals and tourists taking pictures and building towers of pebbles by the river.

Low standings has affected shipping as well. Several wading of the Hungarian stretch of Danube did not meet the ideal sounding, as a result of which service of trading and passenger ships in Budapest was stopped. The main reason of low water level in August is the fact that natural water bases of the Alps, glaciers and springs dry earlier year by year. The same glaciers, then melting, caused floods on Danube in the last 15 years, which is most interesting. The glaciers are gradually disappearing, so extreme low water levels can be expected on great European rivers in the near future.