Some of Venice’s smaller canals have practically dried up due to the persistent low tide, frustrating boat crews and confusing tourists.
Experts say the sustained low tide is linked to a sustained high-pressure weather system over much of Italy.
Since the canals in car-free Venice essentially serve as streets, the phenomenon of the past few days has added to the challenges of everyday life in the lagoon city. In some cases, ambulance boats have had to moor farther from their destination, forcing medical crews to sometimes hand-carry stretchers over long distances, as their vessels cannot navigate up channels reduced to a trickle of water and mud.
Boats are docked along a canal at low tide in Venice, Italy, Monday, February 20, 2023. Some of Venice’s side canals have practically dried up recently due to a sustained low tide coupled with a sustained high-pressure weather system.
For tourists, this meant gondolas couldn’t navigate some of the side waterways that run under Venice’s many scenic bridges.
In the middle of winter, the high atmospheric pressure combined with the lunar cycle creates the extremely low water levels during low tides, noted Jane Da Mosto, environmental scientist and sustainable development analyst at We Are Here Venice, an environmental advocacy group.
She added that the phenomenon highlights the lack of attention to the overdue need to clean Venice’s internal canal network.
Navigation continued on the wider main waterways, including the Grand and Giudecca canals.
Regardless, the same high-pressure system, reinforced by scarce alpine snowmelt this year, has been a factor in the shrinking of lakes and rivers in northern Italy in recent weeks. This month, an isthmus connecting the shores of Lake Garda to a small island has reappeared, delighting visitors who were actually able to walk a bit across the middle of the lake.
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