Hungary's water authority monitoring data showed the Danube at Budapest plunged to a new historic low of 1 cm on the 8th (local time). The extreme low has severely disrupted river navigation, with exposed riverbed debris threatening traffic, and Hungary's only nuclear plant, Paks, briefly facing shutdown risk due to cooling-water constraints. Water specialists attribute the fall to extreme drought across the Danube basin; at the end of July the Budapest gauge read 27 cm, already below the prior

Hungary's water authority monitoring data showed the Danube at Budapest plunged to a new historic low of 1 cm on the 8th (local time). The extreme low has severely disrupted river navigation, with exposed riverbed debris threatening traffic, and Hungary's only nuclear plant, Paks, briefly facing shutdown risk due to cooling-water constraints. Water specialists attribute the fall to extreme drought across the Danube basin; at the end of July the Budapest gauge read 27 cm, already below the prior record of 33 cm set on Oct. 25, 2018.