Only a last northern third is spared by the high heat which overwhelms France: 19 departments in the South are still on heatwave red vigilance Thursday August 24, and 37 others in orange, also in the southern two thirds of the country. Eleven departments are also placed by Météo-France in yellow vigilance, on a line going from Loire-Atlantique to the Vosges.
Some heat records were again broken on Wednesday during this very unusual heat wave so late in the summer. Toulouse saw the thermometer climb to 42.4°C and Carcassone cooked below 43.2°C, all-time highs. Météo-France says it has recorded “many” temperatures between 39 and 42 ° C, including 43 in Moulés-et-Baucels, in Hérault. And with 30.4°C, Menton recorded a new absolute national record for minimum temperature in mainland France.
The day before, the country had experienced its hottest day ever measured after an August 15. The national thermal indicator (daily average of the average air temperature recorded at thirty weather stations representative of the territory) reached 26.9°C.
Twenty-five departments on orange alert for thunderstorms
It is in the South-East and the Rhone Valley that the heat wave is the most stifling. The public establishment insists on its durability and intensity, while emphasizing its “remarkable, even exceptional” character in this region but also on “the south of the Massif Central, in Occitania or as far east as Aquitaine”. . A drop in temperatures should begin on Friday, according to Météo-France. Brittany, Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France and part of the Grand Est appear green on Thursday.
Repeated heat waves are, according to scientists, a marker of global warming and these heat waves will multiply. Added to this on Thursday is thunderstorm vigilance in the northern half of the country, with an episode that will sweep from west to east the regions ranging from the interior of the Pays de la Loire to Normandy, Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France. Some twenty-five departments are placed in orange vigilance.
“Storms will start in the hot air”, warns Météo-France, which notes that the anticyclonic conditions are weakening in the north of the country.
