Whitish clouds move quickly across the night sky while tides are rising gradually. The next morning, Venice awakes to steel blue skies: A warm gust of wind (scirocco) caresses your face when you open the window in the morning, feeling ice-cold in the next minute. Or, the sky looks petrol blue, with the sun shimmering…
Dear readers, In Venice, everyone could tell you about the flood of 4 November 1966, when the water level reached 194 cm on Piazza San Marco. My generation knows this event only from hearsay and until two weeks ago, it seemed unlikely that we would ever witness a similar one. After all, they used to…
Bad weather causes floods (acqua alta) in Venice during November every year, Venetians have learnt to live with it. We did had an uncanny feeling about last night, but it was a surprise when the sirens sounded four times, annoucing acqua granda > 170 cm. People rushed and tried to save as many belongings as…
The two weeks before and after November 1 are always thoughtful here in Venice: It’s the time when severe flooding occurs, more often than in other months. A severe episode of excessive flooding (acqua granda) happened on 28-30 October 2018. In this article, we explore why this acqua alta turned out so severe, and what…
