Strange vision in Venice, where the low tide of the last few days in the lagoon has dried up certain canals of the Serenissima, offering tourists the unusual spectacle of gondolas stranded on mud banks.
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However, this is an “absolutely normal” phenomenon, Alvise Papa, head of Venice’s tide forecasting center, told AFP on Tuesday. “Approximately 70% of low tide phenomena occur precisely during this period from January to February.”
Low tide is not enough to dry up the channels, but this year it is accompanied by high atmospheric pressure inside an anticyclone, which prevents disturbances from occurring. Winter disturbances, accompanied by wind and rain, usually increase tidal amplitude, which is not the case this year.
“Until 2007-2008 we experienced (this phenomenon, editor’s note) every year, then we didn’t have the ebb tide like the last few days,” he observed, while foundations along certain canals were being uncovered, sparking curiosity tourists woke him up.
A spectacle that is all the more paradoxical since the City of the Doges is usually threatened by the opposite phenomenon of the “acqua alta”, a particularly high tide that regularly floods the famous St. Mark’s Square. An invasion that entertains tourists but endangers the foundations of the ancient palaces of the Serenissima, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Since October 2020, an artificial dike system called MOSE (Moses in Italian) is also triggered once the water rise in the Adriatic Sea reaches an alert level of 110 cm.
When asked about a possible connection between the spectacular low water of the last few days and the drought episode in parts of Europe or global warming, the expert said no.
“Starting tomorrow (Wednesday, editor’s note) we will return to a normal situation,” he concluded in a reassuring tone.