Town Tools builds free, public tools for Tartu and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/tartu-tartu-county-ee/river-level
Tartu is a river city, but it is not a flood town the way Pärnu is. The Emajõgi's recurring hazard here is spring ice, not water over the bank — so most of the year this is a quiet number, and seeing that plainly is the point.
the Emajõgi · Tartu gauge (WMO 41025), in the city
87 cm
This gauge publishes its current reading only, with no recent history behind it, so there is no range or trend here to compare it against. Measured 12 Oct, 14:49.
This number is centimetres above the gauge's own graph zero — the zero mark on the board at this station. It is not a depth, not a height above sea level, and not the EH2000 national height system. The warning levels below are quoted on the same graph zero, so the two can be compared with each other; a figure taken from any other datum cannot.
87 cm
Level
stage height at the gauge
The warning levels Riigi Ilmateenistus publishes for this gauge
167 cm below the first warning level (254 cm)
254 cm
Ohtlik — dangerous (level 1)
The critical level for the Emajõgi at Tartu, published as 254 cm above the station's graph zero.
304 cm
Väga ohtlik — very dangerous (level 2)
The critical level exceeded by half a metre to a metre.
This page reads the level the gauge is at now. The published criteria also cover a forecast — a three-day forecast of a level expected once in three, ten or fifty years can trigger the same warning before the river gets there — and nothing here can see that. Only the Estonian Weather Service makes that call.
These thresholds are Riigi Ilmateenistus’s own published criteria for this gauge, read from its page rather than from the live feed. The source and the date we checked it are below.
The official flood warning is at Riigi Ilmateenistus
These numbers describe the river. They are not a flood warning — the official flood-vigilance level for this station is set by Riigi Ilmateenistus.
Riigi Ilmateenistus — the Estonian Weather Service — issues the warnings for dangerous weather, including high water on inland waters. If something is actually happening on or near the river, call 112 and the Rescue Board (Päästeamet) answers.
Spring break-up on the Emajõgi is a recurring public-safety story in Tartu, not a one-off: the Rescue Board issues a warning each year to stay off the ice as the thaw approaches. A level reading tells you nothing about whether ice will hold. For that, follow the Weather Service's ice report for inland waters, linked below.
Which Tartu this number comes from
The gauge is the station the feed calls "Tartu" (WMO 41025), on the Emajõgi at 58.380° N, 26.726° E — in the city, the same water the bridges cross. It is not Tartu-Tõravere, the observatory about 20 km southwest that most "Tartu" weather figures come from; that station measures no water at all.
Swimming is a different question
The Anne canal is where Tartu swims, and it is sampled more often than most Estonian bathing waters because of how heavily it is used. Water quality there is the Health Board's business, not this page's — how high the river stands says nothing about whether it is clean.
Why this page is usually quiet
The Emajõgi normally runs well below the warning level, with the gap measured in metres rather than centimetres. That is the honest state of this river most of the year, and it is worth seeing rather than being told about flood risk that is not there.
Checked 12 Oct, 14:49. River data from Riigi Ilmateenistus (the Estonian Weather Service) / Keskkonnaagentuur (the Estonian Environment Agency). Readings are automatic station observations, unchecked at the time of publication, and may be revised.