by EFAS Hydrological Data Collection Centre

During the month of March, there were 277 stations with exceedances, 32% less than the previous month. Most of them are again in Spain (81 stations). In Italy there are 71 stations with exceedances and in Poland there are 47 stations.

In addition, there are 20 stations in Croatia, 10 in Ukraine, 9 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 8 in Sweden. The following countries have recorded 6 stations or less with exceedances this month (from highest to lowest): Ireland, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Moldova, Serbia, Lithuania, Estonia, Austria and France.

As for the river basins, the main river basin with values above the thresholds this month is the Po River, with 61 stations in Italy. The Danube River, over 7 different countries, is the next river basin with the highest number of stations (35), followed by the Oder River basin with 31 stations showing exceedances in Poland. A total of 53 different river basins has exceedances in March.

In terms of stations that recorded values of mean discharge above the 90% quantile, 238 exceeded this threshold this month. In March, Spain was the country with the most stations in this situation: 95. Norway, with 24 stations, and France and United Kingdom with 19 stations each, are the countries with the next highest number of stations in this situation. The Spanish stations are distributed in 11 different river basins, highlighting the Guadiana River with 36 stations exceeding this quantile. In Norway there are 17 basins affected (highlighting Glomma) while in France and United Kingdom, we can find 6 basins on each country in this situation. In Poland, 14 stations have values above this quantile. In Austria 10 stations exceed this cliff. Other stations exceed the 90% quantile value in up to 19 countries.

By river basin, the Guadiana River stands out with 36 stations above the 90% quantile. The Minho River, the Danube River and the Ebro River, are the second ones with the highest number of stations over this cliff, showing 18 stations each in this situation and followed by the Thames River basin with 11. A total of 62 different river basins has at less one station with mean values over the 90% quantile in March.

Finally, and according to the number of stations recording mean values below the 10% quantile, in March there were 35 stations with average values below this cliff at eleven different countries.

This month, Spain is again the country with most of the stations (10), followed by Germany with 9 stations. Romania reaches the third place with six stations with mean values below this cliff. The other affected countries show one or two stations in this situation: Bulgaria, Norway, Italy, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Austria and Iceland.

In terms of river basin, this month the Danube River and the Elbe River are the ones with the highest number of cases, with 8 stations each with an average discharge below the 10% quantile. The Ebro River shows three stations, the same number that the Llobregat River. In total, as many as 16 different basins have values below this limit in Europe.