Tourists Wade Through Tidal Flooding in Venice (PHOTOS)

The flooding is driven by high tides and heavy winds, and rising sea levels have increased the frequency of the high tides that plague the 1,600-year-old sinking city.

While the city often sees flooding high tides, referred to as "acqua alta," from October to January, the city has seen concerning off-season flooding in recent years as well, including several times this August.

After Venice suffered the second-worst flood in its history in November 2019, the lagoon city was inundated with four more exceptional tides (4 feet, 7 inches or greater) within six weeks.

The possibility of losing Venice to the sea has been a conversation for decades, but recent flooding events have driven home how likely that scenario actually is. City data shows that in the last two decades, there have been nearly as many tides greater than 3.6 feet in Venice — the official level to be considered “acqua alta,”— as during the previous 100 years: 163 vs. 166.

The AP reported that the city has experienced exceptional tides 25 times since record-taking began in 1872, with two-thirds of events having occurred within the last 20 years. Five exceptional tides, or one-fifth of the total happened between November 12 to December 23, 2019.

Click through the slideshow above to see the recent flooding, and to get a glimpse of the sinking Italian city before it's gone.

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