tourists walk through tidal floods in Venice (PHOTOS) | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather Channel

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Mar 17, 2022

People walk in a flooded St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. After Venice suffered the second-worst flooding in its history in November 2019, it was inundated by four more extreme tides in six weeks , shocking Venetians and sparking fears about the worsening impact of climate change. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

Photos show tourists enjoying an outdoor coffee in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, as floodwaters rise under clear blue skies.

Flooding is caused by high tides and high winds, and rising sea levels have increased the frequency of high tides that plague the 1,600-year-old sinking city.

While the city often sees flooding high tides, called “acqua alta”, from October to January, the city has also experienced off-season flooding in recent years, including several times in August.

After Venice suffered the second-worst flooding in its history in November 2019, the lagoon city was inundated with four more extreme tides (4ft 7in or more) in six weeks.

“Conditions have been steadily worsening since the November 2019 floods, so we are confident that during these months flooding is no longer an occasional occurrence. It’s a daily occurrence,” said Saint-Marc’s chief goalkeeper, Carlo Alberto Tesserin. told the Associated Press.

The possibility of losing Venice to the sea has been discussed for decades, but recent floods have shown just how likely this scenario really is. City data shows that in the past two decades there have been almost as many tides above 3.6ft in Venice – the official level to consider “acqua alta” – as in the past 100 years previous: 163 against 166.

The AP reported that the city has experienced bumper tides 25 times since the record began in 1872, with two-thirds of the events occurring in the past 20 years. Five exceptional tides, or a fifth of the total, occurred between November 12 and December 23, 2019.

Click through the slideshow above to see the recent floods and get a glimpse of the Italian city sinking before it disappeared.

The primary journalistic mission of The Weather Company is to report on the latest weather news, the environment and the importance of science in our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.