I have often mentioned that predictions of high water in Venice turn out to be as accurate as weather predictions anywhere else. Sometimes even less accurate, given how sensitive the whole lagoon situation is to all sorts of factors, including wind.
The last week or so has undoubtedly been rather trying for the dauntless Paolo Canestrelli, director of the Tide Center. Because while the Gazzettino, rightly or wrongly, published a series of articles that sounded fairly alarmist: “Feast of the Salute with your hipboots,” “Feast of the Salute with no walkways,” “F of the S at 120 cm [four feet] of high water,” and so on, it didn’t turn out quite that way.
These stories were irksome for a few reasons, none of which had to do with whether or not I had to put on my hipboots.
First, the area around the basilica of the Salute is much higher than the Piazza San Marco, therefore a tide prediction which sounds drastic in one place won’t be nearly so much so in another.
Second, so far this autumn few forecasts have turned out as given. The 120 cm repeatedly predicted for Sunday morning? We got 103 [3 feet].
The tide did finally manage to pull itself up to 122 cm, but that was at 12:10 Sunday night, when probably there weren’t many people or taxis or barges around to be inconvenienced.
A few nights later, the sirens sounded with two additional tones, signaling the probable arrival of 120-130 cm [4-5 feet] of water. Two tones means that we will have some water about halfway up the street outside our door. But in the end, our canal did no more than kiss the edge of the fondamenta. The fact that there was virtually no wind also helped.
Regardless of the height or non-height of the eventual water, articles dramatize that the city has “water on the ground” without specifying the depth — sometimes it can be two inches, but the term “high water” is usually used by the media to sound as if the levees have broken. And these articles never mention how much of Venice has water, making it sound as if the entire city were going under. Someone might be sufficiently original as to publish a story that says “Two tones means that up to 29 per cent of the city is under water,” but I have yet to see one that says “71 per cent of the city is bone dry.”
I realize that drama is entertaining, but why dramatize it at all? It’s not dramatic. It’s temporarily slightly tiresome, at a very low level on the Zwingle Slightly Tiresome Index. I’d rate it a 2, the same as hanging out the laundry.
Argh, 3 times now my comment has been rejected, but I’m nothing if not persistent !
You’re like a wee little terrier in your attempts to give us the real information on acqua alta! A person wonders how they ever coped in the days before almost continous forecasts, and warning sirens. (Very well, probably.)
Sig Canestrelli deserves every euro he is paid, and some more as danger money for all the slings and arrows of complaint he has to duck!
I’m glad you’re inclined to give Sig. Canestrelli his hard-earned due. After all, he’s not a politician, or a merchant — he has absolutely nothing to gain from predicting high water except the satisfaction of knowing people have been warned. Venice existed for centuries without warning sirens and had of there was acqua alta — but Venetians interpreted its imminent arrival the way Lino does, by evaluating an assortment of meterological phenomena based on personal and communal experience. This doesn’t mean water didn’t come ashore, it just means they anticipated it without the bells and whistles. Lino anticipated the drastic acqua alta of 1966 not because he’s some kind of wizard but because he observed that the tide had not turned when it was supposed to, the wind was strongly from the southeast, and he saw a rat running across a telephone line far above the street hours before there was any water on the ground. When he saw the rat, he knew something big was coming. Nowadays I guess somebody in that situation would just call the health department to put out rat poison.
Thank you for the excellent article! As you so thoroughly point out Sr. Canestrelli’s group is indispensable and worthy of praise, not disdain! The gripers will find something to complain about – after all, everything is centered on them!
We seem to visit Venice almost exclusively when aqua alta occurs (great planning, right?). Instead of kvetching, we look for things to do, people and places to see, routes to take to get there and back – all in consideration of Sr. Canestrelli’s warnings. We’re gratified to report back to our hosts about our adventures and how we stayed dry (!!!) or got wet (???) and the great experiences we had along the way.
What we cannot comprehend is the steadfastness of business people year after year coping with the grinding need to meet the challenge of aqua alta. Some are able to change finishes, fixtures, appliances and goods so that they are minimally impacted. Others face damage to age-old and economically irreplaceable floors, walls, furniture and infrastructure, and eventually grow weary and depart – their joy sapped perhaps as much by the complainers as by the unescapable water itself.
Gosh, I’m not sure where “grinding need” became apparent. If you’re on the ground floor anywhere — whether it’s a shop or a house or a bank — you already know how to organize yourself to avoid problems. One example: Put your electrical outlets up high. Not “grinding,” just smart. You put in a pump, if you have to. You install a collection tank. You prepare yourself in an intelligent way. If you’ve got something valuable such as age-old furniture, you’d have to be mentally challenged to keep it on a level where you might get water. All those palaces lining the city’s canals? Nobody lived on the ground floor — that was for merchandise. I have to say that I’ve never heard of anybody growing weary and departing because of acqua alta, and I don’t share your interpretation that the water is inescapable. Of course you can escape it: You put your appliances up on supports (I’ve seen photocopiers on piles of bricks, I’ve seen ice-cream freezers on blocks of wood, etc.). If you’re at risk of high water, you do something to deal with it before it comes. Common sense is a powerful preventative to many problems. If something makes people grow weary enough to depart, it’s not high water, it’s high rents.
All I can say is stay the best. Some professional bloggers post a couple of times a day on the blogs, simply because this continual addition of new content helps them how to get regular readers.
7 Comments
Argh, 3 times now my comment has been rejected, but I’m nothing if not persistent !
You’re like a wee little terrier in your attempts to give us the real information on acqua alta! A person wonders how they ever coped in the days before almost continous forecasts, and warning sirens. (Very well, probably.)
Sig Canestrelli deserves every euro he is paid, and some more as danger money for all the slings and arrows of complaint he has to duck!
I’m glad you’re inclined to give Sig. Canestrelli his hard-earned due. After all, he’s not a politician, or a merchant — he has absolutely nothing to gain from predicting high water except the satisfaction of knowing people have been warned. Venice existed for centuries without warning sirens and had of there was acqua alta — but Venetians interpreted its imminent arrival the way Lino does, by evaluating an assortment of meterological phenomena based on personal and communal experience. This doesn’t mean water didn’t come ashore, it just means they anticipated it without the bells and whistles. Lino anticipated the drastic acqua alta of 1966 not because he’s some kind of wizard but because he observed that the tide had not turned when it was supposed to, the wind was strongly from the southeast, and he saw a rat running across a telephone line far above the street hours before there was any water on the ground. When he saw the rat, he knew something big was coming. Nowadays I guess somebody in that situation would just call the health department to put out rat poison.
Thank you for the excellent article! As you so thoroughly point out Sr. Canestrelli’s group is indispensable and worthy of praise, not disdain! The gripers will find something to complain about – after all, everything is centered on them!
We seem to visit Venice almost exclusively when aqua alta occurs (great planning, right?). Instead of kvetching, we look for things to do, people and places to see, routes to take to get there and back – all in consideration of Sr. Canestrelli’s warnings. We’re gratified to report back to our hosts about our adventures and how we stayed dry (!!!) or got wet (???) and the great experiences we had along the way.
What we cannot comprehend is the steadfastness of business people year after year coping with the grinding need to meet the challenge of aqua alta. Some are able to change finishes, fixtures, appliances and goods so that they are minimally impacted. Others face damage to age-old and economically irreplaceable floors, walls, furniture and infrastructure, and eventually grow weary and depart – their joy sapped perhaps as much by the complainers as by the unescapable water itself.
Keep up the great work!
Gosh, I’m not sure where “grinding need” became apparent. If you’re on the ground floor anywhere — whether it’s a shop or a house or a bank — you already know how to organize yourself to avoid problems. One example: Put your electrical outlets up high. Not “grinding,” just smart. You put in a pump, if you have to. You install a collection tank. You prepare yourself in an intelligent way. If you’ve got something valuable such as age-old furniture, you’d have to be mentally challenged to keep it on a level where you might get water. All those palaces lining the city’s canals? Nobody lived on the ground floor — that was for merchandise. I have to say that I’ve never heard of anybody growing weary and departing because of acqua alta, and I don’t share your interpretation that the water is inescapable. Of course you can escape it: You put your appliances up on supports (I’ve seen photocopiers on piles of bricks, I’ve seen ice-cream freezers on blocks of wood, etc.). If you’re at risk of high water, you do something to deal with it before it comes. Common sense is a powerful preventative to many problems. If something makes people grow weary enough to depart, it’s not high water, it’s high rents.
All I can say is stay the best. Some professional bloggers post a couple of times a day on the blogs, simply because this continual addition of new content helps them how to get regular readers.