Rather than being plagued by bouts of exceedingly high tides, Venice this winter is seeing its famed canals running dry.
Less than a month ago, exceptionally high tides put the lagoon city under over a meter of water, but this week low tides have been running as much as 70cm below normal.
This has resulted in the smaller canals drying up almost completely, leaving many of the city's picturesque gondolas stuck in the mud.
Venice periodically has lower tides than normal, usually during a drought or because of specific weather conditions. The all-time record low was set in 1934, when the tide was 121cm below average.
More recently, low tide dropped by 91cm in 1994.
The current low tides, experts said, have been caused by a combination of high atmospheric pressure in the upper Adriatic and low pressure in the lower Adriatic, along with the full moon.
High water in Venice, on the other hand, is the result of three principle factors: the rising floor in the lagoon caused by incoming silt; the undermining of the islands by the extraction of methane gas in the sea off Venice; and the overall increase in sea levels caused by global warming.
These conditions can then be aggravated by high winds and the moon cycle.
