The contribution of a mesoscale cyclone and associated meteotsunami to the exceptional flood in Venice on November 12, 2019

Abstract

On November 12, 2019, an exceptional flood event took place in Venice, second only to the one that occurred on November 4, 1966. The sea level reached a peak value of 1.89 m above the local datum determining the flooding of almost 90% of the pedestrian surface of the historical city. Several processes concurred to raise the water level in Venice and the northern Adriatic Sea on November 12, 2019. Among these, a fast‐moving mesoscale cyclone travelled at about 12 m s in the northwestward direction over the northern Adriatic Sea, raising the sea levels at the shore in front of the Lagoon of Venice. High‐resolution numerical simulations indicated that atmosphere–ocean resonance occurred on November 12, 2019, generating a meteotsunami‐like wave that contributed significantly to the extreme sea level in Venice. The relative contributions of the wind and air pressure to the peak sea level were also estimated. Additional numerical experiments were performed to prove the occurrence of Proudman resonance and to determine a transfer function of such high‐frequency sea‐level perturbations for the Lagoon of Venice.

Coastal Flood Risk Assessment: An Approach to Accurately Map Flooding through National Registry-Reported Events

“…In this respect, the combination of past flooding events' interpretation (in this study), sea level rise predictions [35,36], and changing atmospheric conditions (with a corresponding increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme weather events [1, 15,16,34]) should provide better insight into coastal vulnerability and damaging infrastructural effects. However, for Piran, desalination and mixed waterways currently are not appropriately considered within this cumulative climate hazard altogether, and, thus, the future effects for Piran as a coastal city under threat of flooding might be more devastating than currently expected: recent estimates of damage on infrastructure and humans might represent an underestimation [11,14,23].…”

“…Such events are also occurring in the North Adriatic of the Mediterranean basin, with typical examples within the Gulf of Venice [15,16] and the Gulf of Trieste, including the 47 km of Slovenian coastline [17][18][19]. Of all the Slovenian inhabited coastal area, the historic town of Piran is most at risk of being flooded by the sea; e.g., just like the city of Venice, it is located at a very low elevation, vulnerable to a combination of high tides, southeast wind, and low atmospheric pressure [12,17,20].…”

Sea Level Rise in Europe: Observations and projections

“…In addition, meteotsunamis can also significantly contribute to ESLs generated by other mechanisms (Ruić et al, 2023;Vilibić and Šepić, 2017). For example, recently a meteotsunami has been identified as a contribution to an extreme sea level event in Venice (Ferrarin et al, 2023).…”