A powerful storm swept into St. Petersburg on Friday, bringing strong winds and rising waters in the Neva River that triggered weather warnings and forced the closure of parks and museums.
The St. Petersburg Dam reported a water level of 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) around 8 a.m. local time. Flood conditions are officially met when the Neva River rises above 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) within city limits, though the dam managed to prevent that from happening.
“I think most people, seeing the weather around 8 p.m. last night — sunny, calm and 28 degrees Celsius [82.4 degrees Fahrenheit] — didn’t believe what we had forecast,” St. Petersburg’s chief meteorologist Alexander Kolesov wrote on Friday morning. “But reality is now clearly visible outside. A flood would have already occurred if the dam had not been closed.”
“With confidence, we can now say that St. Petersburg has recorded its second July flood in the city’s history,” Kolesov added.
Strong winds, which toppled trees and loose structures across the city, were expected to continue through the first half of the day before gradually weakening, Kolesov said. Water levels, already high with the dam’s floodgates closed, were expected to peak around 120 centimeters (3.9 feet) within city limits by midday Friday.
Authorities shut down museums, parks and gardens due to the storm.
Over the past three centuries, St. Petersburg has recorded more than 300 floods, two-thirds of which saw water levels exceed the “dangerous” threshold of 2.1 meters (6.8 feet).
Flooding typically occurs when storms from the west push the Baltic Sea into the shallow Neva Bay, causing water to spill over the banks of the Neva River and into the network of canals that crisscross the city.
In 1777, 1824 and 1924, water levels rose above the “catastrophic” 3-meter mark, resulting in hundreds of deaths and widespread damage.
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