VENICE: The exceptional high sea level event of 12/11/2019
Preliminary analysis of the data and description of the phenomenon
Friday 05 June 2020
Authors:
Christian Ferrarin, Jacopo Chiggiato, Marco Bajo, Katrin Schroeder, Luca Zaggia, Alvise Benetazzo
CNR - Ismar Venezia
Title:
VENICE: The exceptional high sea level event of 12/11/2019. Preliminary analysis of the data and description of the phenomenon
Introduction:
On the 12th November 2019, an exceptionally high sea level event occurred in Venice, second only to the event that occurred on November 4th, 1966. Although an exceptional high tide (>140 cm) was predicted by the numerical models in use, during the evening, sudden gusts of wind at more than 100 km per hour generated a further local intensification of this phenomenon.
The Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), which was opened in Venice in 1969 as the CNR’s response to the 1966 high water event, collaborates with the Tide Forecasting and Reporting Center of the Municipality of Venice (Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree del Comune di Venezia) and the institutes ISPRA and ARPA of Emilia Romagna for developing sea level and wave forecasting models. This applied research provides an important contribution to the preservation of the coastal areas and to safeguard the population and the artistic and architectural heritage of the city of Venice and the islands of its lagoon.
The event that struck Venice on November 12th, although having certain conditions seemingly typical of the events that cause exceptional high waters, it had some peculiar characteristics not observed before, that require an in-depth analysis in order to draw conclusions to improve future forecasting and alert systems. However, it is possible to provide a preliminary interpretation, based on the data available from the observational networks of the institutions in charge of monitoring the weather-marine system.
