Record Low Danube Shuts Hungary's Only Nuclear Plant

The cause is a summer of unusually low rainfall followed by repeated heatwaves. Europe is warming roughly twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service, which is drying out soils and rivers across the continent. The Serbian hydrologist Dejan Vladikovic told the broadcaster N1 that spring rainfall had already been poor before the heat arrived, that the river had sunk to levels unseen for 50 to 60 years, and that no recovery was expected before mid-September. Romania's National Institute of Hydrology measured the flow entering the country at 1,600 cubic metres per second on Wednesday, roughly a third of the July average of 4,700, and forecast a fall to 1,500 by Tuesday. The Guardian reports that the Rhine has also fallen to its lowest recorded level along some stretches.

Magyar warned that Hungary's energy supply could become critical from Monday, with temperatures holding near 37C for a week, and asked households to avoid heavy electricity use between 17:00 and 22:00, including charging electric cars and running air conditioning. A rotational shutdown of the grid remains possible. Shipping has halted in Bulgaria, where border police evacuated 186 passengers from the cruise ship Viking Ullur after it ran aground near Vidin and ran short of food and water. The retreating water has also exposed the past: a German warship sunk in the Second World War has surfaced at Prahovo in Serbia, and a resident of Ruse in Bulgaria found mammoth remains, including a lower jaw and two tusks, lying on the riverbed.