Gondolas Stuck as Venice Waters Recede [Jan 13]
‘Gondolas are running aground and hotel docks hang in midair as Italy´s lagoon city Venice, more commonly awash at high tide, dries out.’
This is the flood season in Venice and there is no record of the canals ever going empty like this.
‘Acqua alta (High tides): 'Generally Venice only has Acqua Alta in Autumn and Winter when some streets and squares flood. The city is well prepared with pedestrian routes equipped with special footbridges to avoid the high water and to reach the main parts of Venice.'
News on TV in Spain today saying the water level is down 65 centimetres in Venice. About 10 days ago there was also news on the weather report of one of the big channels here explaining to people why the level of the Mediterranean Sea on the shores of Barcelona was down 20 centimetres - they said it was due to an unusually high pressure area over the Iberian Peninsula and much of the rest of Europe. Seemed very odd.
I am from Croatia and sea level dropped 1 meter. Some small harbours became beaches and water doesn’t return [Jan 17]. Locals (people at the coast) said that they never saw anything like it. It’s going on for days now, even on the Croatian news they showed photographs of that drop.