The heat wave affecting southern Europe this week is moving into southern France. This heat wave episode affects Corsica, several departments of Paca and Languedoc-Roussillon, and will extend this Wednesday.
In its bulletin dedicated to July 19, 2023, Météo-France places ten departments on heat wave orange alert: Pyrénées-Orientales, Hérault, Gard, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-de- Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
Temperatures reached 40 ° C in some of these territories on Tuesday, including Corsica, Var and Pyrénées-Orientales, indicates Météo-France. Many local heat records have also been broken in the south-east of France.
In all these municipalities, these records are 8 to 11.9°C above normal for the season. At Alpe d’Huez, a high mountain resort, the record was also broken for the minimum temperature: the thermometer did not fall below 19.7°C overnight, clearly beating the previous record set at 18.7°C on July 23, 2009 and approaching the definition of a tropical night (20°C).
The records at Serralongue and Verdun in Ariège were fueled by a foehn effect, the sudden heating of an air mass after crossing a mountain range, said Météo-France.
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The public establishment specifies that this heat peak is not exceptional, but that it nevertheless calls for vigilance, in particular towards people at risk and vulnerable, because of its duration – particularly in Corsica and in the Alpes-Maritimes. . It is expected to last all day Wednesday, July 19. The mercury, in “significant decline” in western Occitania, could however increase in Languedoc during the day.