Banatska Palanka

At kilometre 1076.6, in the last corner of the Serbian Banat before the Romanian border, Banatska Palanka holds the gauge for a long, quiet reach of the left bank. The zero of the staff stands at 62.85 metres; on 24 October 2026 the water was at 663 centimetres, 19 below the 682 that are normal for the day. The Danube water level at Banatska Palanka also has an absolute side: the surface lay at 69.48 metres. One figure without the other tells only half the story.

The port, the ferry and the mouth of the Nera

The village has a port behind it. At the beginning of the 19th century Banatska Palanka was an important loading point on the Danube, and today the crossing is made by ferry to Ram, opposite the medieval fortress; there is no bridge here. Three kilometres downstream, Stara Palanka sits between the mouths of the Nera and the Karaš, the latter canalised as part of the Danube–Tisa–Danube system. To the west lie Čibuklija island and the Labudovo okno reserve, a Ramsar site. With Stara Palanka the village counted 682 inhabitants in 2011.

Two marks from RHMZ, two from Plovput

RHMZ publishes two steps: 765 centimetres for preparation, 865 for the exceptional one. For navigation Plovput gives different figures, 680 centimetres at low water and 770 at high water. At 663 centimetres in October 2026 the staff stood below all four. The river is close to the Romanian bank here: four kilometres downstream, Baziaș, on the Romanian bank marks the entry of the Danube into Romania; upstream lies the gauge at Smederevo, and after Veliko Gradište, at the head of the gorge the valley closes in.

The 2006 record and the low of 2015

The highest level in the RHMZ series was 953 centimetres, on 16 April 2006, in the flood that carried 15,800 cubic metres per second at the entry into Romania. At the other end, the series minimum is 551 centimetres, on 9 June 2015. In October 2026 the water was below normal but still 112 centimetres above that minimum.