Baja

Baja is the second-largest town in Bács-Kiskun county, on the left bank of the Danube at kilometre 1478.7, and the Danube water level at Baja is read on the town gauge. The gauge zero stands at 80.99 metres; the Danube Commission's low-water mark (LDC) is 108 centimetres and its high-water mark (HDC) 800. At 09:00 on 24 October 2026 the reading was -31 centimetres — 139 below the LDC and 831 below the HDC — and the OVF forecast put it at -28 in 24 hours and -14 in 72. Below zero the river does not dry up; it only drops under the mark.

The Zero at 80.99 Metres

The zero is a fixed benchmark, not the river's everyday level. The lowest reading before 2026 was 27 centimetres, on 25 October 2018. On 16 July 2026 the Baja water level fell to 25 centimetres and the town's river beach was closed; it kept falling, and on 10 October reached -50, the lowest figure in the series shown here. Of the 766 days from 19 September 2024 to 24 October 2026, 197 ran below the LDC and only 7 above the HDC, all in the September 2024 flood.

The Ice Flood of 1956

In March 1956 the Danube broke the embankments at Baja: the water climbed to 1,037 centimetres, 125 above the record of the time, and flooded the low-lying western part of the town, leaving 360 families without a home. Of the ice-free floods, 1965 brought 976 centimetres, 2002 943 and 2006 852. In June 2013 the river crested at 989, the highest of them. Baja was one of the critical points of the flood defence; embankments were raised, and on Petőfi Island the water burst the sewers. In September 2024 the Danube level at Baja peaked at 923 centimetres, 66 below 2013.

The Bridge, the Port and the Neighbours

At kilometre 1480.22, a kilometre and a half upstream of the gauge, stands the Türr István Bridge: 582 metres long, one railway track and one lane each way, a 60-metre navigable opening and a clearance of 8.4 to 8.7 metres. Built between 1906 and 1908, destroyed in 1944, rebuilt in 1950 and again in 1998–1999, it remains the only railway bridge over the Danube south of Budapest. The port stretches along the left bank between kilometres 1479 and 1481, and across the river lies Gemenc, the largest floodplain forest in Europe. Fifty-three kilometres upstream, the Paks gauge shows what is heading down to Baja; 19 kilometres downstream, the gauge at Dunaszekcső measures the same water again before it reaches Mohács.