Danube River Basin Freshwater for November 1985 - 1999

In general runoff is in the lower Danube basin area and this division is linked to the rainfall pattern. With the onset of snowmelt runoff in the upper basin becomes high, reflecting the importance of winter precipitation in the Alps for generating river flow.

In the winter months lower temperatures favour precipitation as snow but in certain years a warm winter resulting in higher runoff estimates because rainfall rather than snowfall occurred. This contributes to the variation in runoff from year to year.