Budapest's 'Rock of Starvation' Resurfaces as Historic Drought Grips the Danube

A months-long drought is tightening its grip on the Danube river basin. Budapest's Inseg-szikla, or 'Rock of Starvation', has reappeared above the river's surface as a result, according to researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Historically, the rock's appearance warned of low water that could bring poor harvests and hunger; today it marks how far the river has fallen.

IIASA researchers Peter Burek and Emilio Politti traced the drought using more than three decades of climate and hydrological data. Rainfall across the Danube basin between April and July 2026 was far below the 1990-2025 average, and June brought far more days above 30 degrees Celsius than usual, intensifying the dry conditions. By July, extreme soil-moisture shortages covered most of the basin, stressing crops and pastures especially hard in Austria, Czechia and Hungary.

Across the basin as a whole, 2026 is one of the driest years for soil moisture since the researchers' records began in 1990, surpassed only by 2003; in Austria, Czechia and Hungary, July's soil moisture was even more severe than in July 2003. IIASA modelling found the Danube's July low-flow levels were the most extreme in the same 1990-2026 record, surpassing the major hydrological drought of 2003.

More than 80 million people live in the Danube basin, and falling water levels have already caused energy and water shortages, disrupted cruise and freight shipping, and forced the shutdown of a nuclear power plant. Warmer river water also holds less oxygen, putting added pressure on aquatic ecosystems. As the IIASA analysis concludes, how severe a drought's consequences become is "a matter of policy, not climate alone."