Did I just encounter acqua alta?
 

Arrived in Venice just before 2 PM. Previous night was in Pienza where there were heavy thunderstorms throughout the night before my departure from there. I could see about ankle deep water running outside on the sidewalks.

I checked the Weather Underground app. which showed over an inch of rain in the forecast. It had gone up from about 1/3 to 1/2 an inch earlier in the week. Then I checked the forecast for Venice and saw that it was suppose have even heavier rains there.

At one point the app. showed 5.71 inches for the day before I was to arrive there!

When I did arrive, there was some light sprinkles so it wasn't a problem to get from the train station to buy the vaporetto pass and get on line 1 to get to the place where I'd be staying, an apt. near Sant'Angelo vaporetto.

The owner met me at the vaporetto stop and showed me to the apt. I asked her about the rains and she said it rained a lot but not atypical in the summer. I said I saw a forecast of almost 12 to 15 centimeters. She said she didn't know about that but they do experience acqua alta in November where the water can go hip high. They said they rebuilt the foundation of this 18th century building where the apt. was so that water doesn't seep into the building from underneath.

So I didn't think much of it, got something to eat, walked around a bit, returned to the apt. and rested before going out again just before 7 PM. Soon as I stepped out of the building,the little alley which this building is on was flooding, about an inch or two, didn't cover it up entirely but water was coming in. I stepped around and went to pick up some things, grab a quick bite.

While waiting around for the vaporetto, I found that high tide was expected around 10:30 PM and that high tide would be about 2 feet higher than low tide which would be around 4 AM.

When I returned, the whole alley way was more than ankle deep. So I took off my shoes and socks -- fortunately was wearing shorts -- and gingerly walked. The front door of the building had this metal hatch flipped up, covering the lower foot of the front door. I opened the door and stepped over it.

I noticed nearly alleys also running perpendicular to the Grand Canal weren't flooding. So it seems this particular alley wasn't built to withstand high tides that well.

But I don't know if this is typical or because of the heavy rains the night before. It did seem like the water level of the Grand Canal was higher than I remember it being, but my previous visit was several years ago so I'm not sure.

This website which forecasts high tide predicts even higher high tides the next 3 days ...

I don't think there's ever been acqua alta in the summer. It caused by a combination of high tides and strong winds, not by rain.

However, I see that there was a moderately high tide today.

No.

You are coming up to a Spring tide (august 1) so the tides will be getting higher over the next couple of days. The wind will affect things too.

If it is because of the tide it will fill twice a day at the moment. If it was because of heavy rain draining through it it may not happen again.

Hmm doesn't show any red areas right now.

Just in case you have not found this website / pdf yourself already:
Attachment 2813
You are on "code yellow". Which is just one level up from "normal/ green".

The reason your app does not show "red areas" (yet) is that it's still four hours to high tide at 21:40hrs (with 85cms tide tonite)

Well at 7 PM, there are no puddles in the alley.

24 hours ago, the puddles were forming.

Because the high tide is not coming at the same hour but a bit later every day.

11 PM, the alleyway is dry.

Calle Traghetto. But supposedly there are 9 of them.

This is the one near the Fortuny museum.

We were in Venice on one of those occasions when the basilica was flooded. Thankfully, the water receded within a few hours. The event this past week is just terrible, and I feel so bad for the Venetians. I hope the MOSE project can now, finally get completed, but it's unclear whether the barriers engineered decades ago will be sufficient to deal with rising sea levels in the years to come.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/14/...-venice-floods

I left Venice on Monday morning, the day before the terrible acqua alta arrived. We'd had a bit for a couple of days, but nothing worse than a bit of water lapping over the Fondamente and some of the vaporetti cancelled with shuttle boats put on where the vaporetti couldn't get under the bridges. Then on Tuesday night the acqua alta and the storm struck creating the worst flooding in Venice since 1966. Friends still there have been posting photos but nothing can really convey the awfulness of what has happened. And there are still high tides forecast for this week making the clearing up difficult to start. MOSE is a disaster and Venice will probably have disappeared below the waves before they finish it. Words cannot convey how dreadful it is.

Well the delays in the construction of the MOSE project or whatever they call it to protect against rising sea levels is way past original schedule and I saw a reference that corruption probably is at least partly responsible for the state of the project.