For the Viennese in summer there is a sea that is close by and a sea that is very close by.

The Adriatic is so close, the only question is whether we will see each other again in Grado or Jesolo.

Lake Neusiedl is very close by.

But it's not pure joy either here or there.

Grado is shrouded in smoke from the forest fires in Veneto.

And Lake Neusiedl has less and less water.

At the lidos you stand ankle-deep in the mud, sailors stay on the jetty, even pedal boats threaten to run aground when they are full.

The lowest water level since regular records began in 1965 was recorded on Monday.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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At first it was only a centimeter by which the water level was below the previous minus level from 2003: 115.04 meters "above the Adriatic Sea", as the standard reference value in Austria is called.

However, the 115.05 meters were measured 19 years ago in September.

The water level of the largest lake in Europe without an outflow, which is only a maximum of two meters deep anyway, is mainly regulated by precipitation and evaporation, and until September the latter is of course to be expected.

Then the water should be much lower.

On Thursday the level was already 115.03 meters, as Christian Sailer, Head of Water Management Burgenland, says in an interview with the FAZ;

in winter it was 115.20.

Although the records do not begin until 1965, the level was undoubtedly lower at one point.

in the 19th

The Zicksee, which is only a few kilometers from Lake Neusiedl, is practically that far.

With the current heat, over 30 degrees every day, this happens quickly, and the water depth then decreases by one centimeter every day.

The Zicksee, actually a lake that is also only fed by precipitation, has been filled with groundwater for years.

But because the groundwater level is also falling dangerously, this had to be stopped in June.

In a spectacular rescue operation this week, the mayor of St. Andrä am Zicksee asked the local sport fishermen to collect the fish that were wriggling in the 20 centimeter shallow water and release them in nearby ponds.

It is said to have been around 30 tons of fish, mainly carp - the sensitive pike and zander had already died.

But the region is not just about beach resorts, sailors and fishermen.

On the one hand, Lake Neusiedl (Hungarian: Fertö) and its surroundings, located in the far east of Austria and with a smaller part in the west of Hungary, are used intensively for agriculture.

On the other hand, with its reed belt and the steppe landscape in the so-called Seewinkel, which is unique in Central Europe, it is also a habitat for special flora and fauna, a paradise for bird watchers.

The southern end, located between Austria and Hungary, is protected as the Neusiedler See – Seewinkel National Park.