VENICE, Italy, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Venice, Italy, braced for flooding as wind-driven tides coupled with heavy rainfall pushed the water level to 40 inches above normal sea level, officials said.
The "acqua alta" -- high water -- caused 7 percent of the city center to be flooded, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Monday.
"We were expecting this. There's been a surge in tides, heavy rain, and the sirocco winds on top," said a local weather forecaster.
The threat from periodic high water is growing as climate change brings heavier rains to northern Italy, weather scientists say.
The greatest "acqua alta" occurred in 1966, when water rising to 76 inches caused damage throughout the city. Levels of 40 to 55 inches above sea level routinely hit the lagoon city, which responds by deploying rafts of pontoon walkways.
Three main factors have worsened the high water in the city, experts say; the rising floor of the lagoon caused by incoming silt, the subsidence of the city by the extraction of methane gas in the sea off Venice, and the worldwide increase in sea levels caused by global warming.
