Venice Flooding

Not at all. September is a drier month (usually as who knows with weather these days!) and Venetians are resourceful and will clean up the mess long before Sept. Go while you can. Everyone should spend a few days in Venice.

Nope. No reason.
Acqua Alta - high tide - is not a particularly uncommon event in Venice, and the locals have tons of experience dealing with them A little background:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/venice/flooding-acqua-alta-tips

The issue this week is that those tides are at historically high levels so the fallout is much more severe than usual, and I'm reading that there's been additional storm damage from high winds and whatnot. A event of this magnitude is unlikely to happen next Sept. Even if a 'normal' aqua alta does occur, they usually only last a few hours so are no reason to avoid the city.

So glad to hear that. I was thinking it wouldn't be a problem necessarily but my husband was thinking maybe we should rethink Venice. I've been reading some posts and they mention maybe tide is higher at full moon and more possibility of flooding? If so, is there a place this early out to check tides for next September?

Thanks for your response.

It's not only the moon that creates aqua alta in Venice. It is also the direction of the wind and storm conditions.

https://www.visit-venice-italy.com/acqua-alta-venice-italy.htm

Tidal charts. https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Venezia-Italy/tides/latest

Venice has been working on the Mose Project since about 2002 and its supposed to go online by 2020-2021. It's an amazing engineering project.

Probably too much info...
Floodgates and components of the Venetian Lagoon project

A total of 78 mobile gates are being laid at the bottom of the seabed as part of the MOSE project. They are 92ft long, 65ft wide and will weigh 300t. The mobile gates being laid at the bottom of the inlet channel are supported by 125ft long steel and concrete pilings, measuring 500mm in diameter and 20m in length, driven into the lagoon bed.

The floodgates consist of a metal box structure. Compressed air is pumped into the structure when a tide of more than 110m height is expected. The air will rise up the barriers to the surface of the water to block the flow of the tide and prevent water from flowing into the lagoon.

Floodgates are hollowed at the bottom, to allow the blowing of compressed air. They will be filled with water and lowered into the seabed when there is no harm of flooding. The floodgates at each inlet will function independently depending on the force of the tide expected.

Crose, the tide goes up and down twice a day. The flooding is only for a few hours at high tide.
And then it is only under certain conditions, if a full moon coincides with the right (wrong?) weather conditions, rain and a wind from the south. Totally impossible to predict more than a few days in advance.
It only happens a few times a year, the odds are in your favour, this week's events does not change that.

The phases of the moon are known years and years in advance (in September 2020, it looks like the full moon is on the 2nd), but the other factors that influence the tide level (wind and rain) can't be forecast more than a few days out.

As the others said, flooding is unlikely to be a problem in September, but if you're worried anyway, I have a couple of suggestions for peace of mind (based on what's worrying me about my upcoming trip, which hasn't happened yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt):

You say you're planning to start your trip in Venice. Maybe rethink that, and see if you can't schedule a different destination first. A trip report from last year described arriving in Venice, hungry and tired after a long international flight, and having to deal with a storm and flood right away. That makes me glad that Venice is our second stop - we'll have a couple of days on the ground in Italy to recover our energy, keep an eye on the forecast, and make sure we're well rested and well fed before we get to Venice.

Consider getting a refundable hotel reservation, even if it means paying extra. We didn't (the savings for the nonrefundable rate were significant), and I'm regretting that a little bit.

Check the areas likely to flood. Piazza San Marco is the lowest area and therefore the first to flood.

Be aware that in early September the possibility that we have Acqua Alta above 100 cm is very remote.

https://foto.ilgazzettino.it/cronaca/acqua_alta_le_mappe_di_venezia_sommersa_relazione_altezza_marea_simulazione_cvn-114794.html

Thanks for all the information and advice. We are actually going to spend a few days in Germany visiting exchange students ahead of our trip to Venice and other places in Italy. I should have mentioned that. Our friends, however, will be flying in from the US to Venice where we'll meet up with them for the rest of the trip. I'll work on refundable reservations when I get around to that, but once I make a plan I really don't want to change everything. So I think we'll just go ahead with our plans. It looks like we'll be there at the end of the new moon and start of the first quarter. Hopefully we won't have to buy galoshes. I feel bad for the people living there during those times.

We are also traveling to Venice next September and wouldn't think of cancelling... it's a good time of year; we've also toured Venice in early October which is also a good month to go!
Hope this helps,
The chances of either high water or low water (apart from the cost) is another reason I won't do a river cruise. Have had a couple of friends that were caught and had to be bused because of this! We would rather rent a car and drive through Europe...
Jean

Thanks for all your replies and encouragement. We're going to go forward!

Anything can happen anywhere you go.

I'd rather stay in Venice during the highest tide than during the september film Festival! I hate when George takes all the water taxi for himself, his staff and her stuff.

It has been flooding in Venice for quite a long time. The city was built on marshland and is slowly sinking. They know how to cleanup .

I am so glad to hear you are continuing with your plans. Download the ap called W.V.F (water on the venice floor) it will show you live tide level, forecast, and a live interactive map that shows where water is and what's dry. Just in case. Very helpful and some peace of mind.
I'm betting that the trip report that was referred to above was mine (hungry and tired) from Oct./Nov. last year, 2018. We started in Venice after flying over night from the USA and it was exceptionally high acqua alta (those records broke this week, 2019). But I wouldn't do it any differently. I believe that Venice is the perfect place to start a trip; to rest and get over jet lag and acclimate. Also, Venice is very dramatic to fly into and it is an extra layer of adventure taking a boat to your place. You are going to have a fantastic trip!

Thanks for the tip on the app. I'm always of the mindset I'd rather know. I'm thinking of buying flights soon. I want to get busy on booking rooms and transportation within Italy. So looking forward to it!

George?

George Clooney, I think.🤣

Ah, no ...... would that nice George Clooney hog all the boats?