The heavy rain has caused the Elbe River—whose water level had been steadily dropping after the hot weekend—to rise slightly again. Although water levels are currently still low at the four Saxon monitoring stations along the Elbe, this is expected to change starting Thursday, according to a forecast by the State Environmental Agency.
According to the forecast, water levels will rise at the first monitoring station past the Czech border in Schöna starting early Thursday morning, and about 140 kilometers further downstream in Torgau around noon on Friday. Low water levels mean that much less water than usual is flowing through the monitoring stations.