I thought I'd share with you a little bit of a typical November day in one of the world's most beautiful cities.
November is the month when we're most likely to get high water. Everyone's heard lots about Venice's Acqua Alta, right? Here's a photo to help remind you (not taken today, obviously, they are not bundled up in coats carrying umbrellas. It's pouring rain here today too.)
For the last few days, we locals have been receiving email messages and texts from the comune (city hall) alerting us to the forecasted height of high water. It's been a code Orange the last 24 hours, with 125 cm of high water predicted for 11:00 am today. At the lowest point in the city, St. Mark's square, that means the water would be about at the top of my boots, which are almost knee level on me.
Here's the latest bulletin from city hall, sent this morning. You can see we're in for a little more aqua alta both tomorrow and the next day. Bulletins such as this have become a normal part of my life in this time of the year, in fact, they have been hitting my inbox once every couple hours in the last 24 hours.
Another part of our normal existence here in Venice through the winter months is the sound of the Aqua Alta sirens. This morning, we heard 3 tones, alerting us the water would be around 130 cm. In the video below it is the highest alert, 4 tones. The video is from a day not quite a year ago. Just wanted you all to have a taste of what we live with.
For the last few days, we locals have been receiving email messages and texts from the comune (city hall) alerting us to the forecasted height of high water. It's been a code Orange the last 24 hours, with 125 cm of high water predicted for 11:00 am today. At the lowest point in the city, St. Mark's square, that means the water would be about at the top of my boots, which are almost knee level on me.
Here's the latest bulletin from city hall, sent this morning. You can see we're in for a little more aqua alta both tomorrow and the next day. Bulletins such as this have become a normal part of my life in this time of the year, in fact, they have been hitting my inbox once every couple hours in the last 24 hours.
Another part of our normal existence here in Venice through the winter months is the sound of the Aqua Alta sirens. This morning, we heard 3 tones, alerting us the water would be around 130 cm. In the video below it is the highest alert, 4 tones. The video is from a day not quite a year ago. Just wanted you all to have a taste of what we live with.
Hope everyone stays dry today!
7 comments:
I'm sorry that you are experiencing flooding, but the warning is actually melodic. Certainly not the ugly sounds of our sirens and car alarms here in the states. Ah, everything is better in Venice :-)
Elizabeth, I are, one of the spookiest moments in Venice was crossing to Guidecca late one night on the Vaporetto in freezing fog, with 4 tones echoing across the water
Oh my god, Rob, I can only imagine what that was like. We've always been in the house when the sirens have gone off- and that's spooky enough! You win the prize :)
Karen,
thanks for sharing the video and showing the email reports you get from the commune. It's interesting to see how they use technology nowadays to alert everyone!
Hi Karen
I've been a silent reader for a long time now, but I wanted to say hi :)
And I also wanted to let you and your readers know that for the smartphone users there is an app now called "hi!tide Venice" which is very useful http://www.a-pole.com/hitide-venice.html
Hope to get back to that wonderful city soon! I miss it so much. Was there in April :)
Claudia
Your blog was very helpfull. Thanks a lot. I booked a flight through flysky.ro and I was pretty excited about it. I do hope the weather with be less troublesome when I will come visit :)
Are the sirens loud enough to hear when you are in the house with the windows closed? I forget - are there one or two high tides each day? I just hope there will not be acqua alta when I go to my masked ball during Carnevale -- would hate to have to deal with a long costume in that kind of weather.
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