Zemun

Zemun is a Belgrade municipality on the Danube's right bank, with 177,908 residents at the 2022 census. Its gauge stands at kilometre 1173, three kilometres upstream of the Sava's mouth, and has measured the river since 1870; its zero is fixed at 67.87 metres, and the catchment above it covers 412,762 square kilometres. The Danube water level at Zemun is therefore read on the Danube itself, not on the Sava: at 7 a.m. on 24 October 2026 the river stood at 175 centimetres, four centimetres higher than the day before, with the water at 15.2 °C. RHMZ, Serbia's hydrometeorological service, forecast 181, 181, 179 and 180, with the seven-day range holding between 150 and 200 centimetres.

The Gauge and the Defence Steps

The zero is a reference level, not the riverbed: the lowest value in the processed series, 1972–2025, is -8 centimetres, on 29 November 1983. Two defence steps stand at 550 centimetres for regular defence and 650 for emergency. The platform publishes no LDC or HDC for Zemun, and the station page says as much; the RHMZ steps remain the only markers. The mean for October on the same series is 267 centimetres, almost a metre above today's reading.

The 2006 Record and the High Years

The highest level measured is 783 centimetres, on 16 April 2006, above the previous record of 757, set in 1981. In Belgrade, the Danube overflowed at Zemun, at Novi Beograd and at Veliko Selo, and regular defence lasted 52 days, emergency defence 36. In 2013 the gauge climbed to 612 on 12 April and fell to 192 on 21 August. In 2014 it reached 631 on 23 May. In 2024 the maximum was 517 on 6 January, and autumn brought the low of 178 on 11 September; the annual mean was 351. In the summer of 2022 the gauge fell to 180 centimetres on 29 July.

The Sava, the Island and the Belgrade Reach

Three kilometres downstream of Zemun, the Sava enters the Danube at kilometre 1169.9, beside the Great War Island. The island, 2.11 square kilometres in area, lies in the municipality of Zemun and is often flooded. The platform's tributary station is the Sava gauge, 4.2 kilometres from Zemun. Upstream, the gauge at Slankamen, 43 kilometres away, gives the level at which the river enters the Belgrade reach; 19 kilometres downstream, the gauge at Pančevo shows the level at which it leaves. For Belgrade as a whole, though, the reference point remains the Sava: the Danube level at Belgrade is read at kilometre 0.97 of that river, not on the Danube.