The oppressive heat wave that is hitting the western Mediterranean basin this week will raise temperatures to 40°C on Tuesday in places in the south-eastern quarter of France, according to Météo-France, while relatively sparing the rest of the country. The interior of Provence and Corsica are likely to reach 40°C, with the peak expected on Tuesday. If France is relatively spared by the current heat wave, this Monday, since only one department, the Alpes-Maritimes, has been placed by Météo-France on “orange” vigilance alert, this orange vigilance will however be extended to six other departments of the South-East, Corsica and the Pyrenees, indicates the meteorological service. Haute-Corse, Corse-du-Sud, Pyrénées-Orientales, Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Vaucluse are concerned.
The meteorological organization evokes a “non-exceptional heat wave episode, but the persistence of which requires particular vigilance”. The heat dome which has settled over the west of the Mediterranean basin should shift to the east on Wednesday, and only a few departments in the South-East should remain affected by high heat.
???Heat wave developing in the south-east quarter over the next few days, with a peak expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.??
Last year, France was at this point in the summer in its second national heat wave. But the summer of 2023 is marked, in France as in the rest of the world, by abnormally high temperatures, well above normal for the season. Since 2000, heat waves have been five times more frequent in France than before 1989 and they will be twice as numerous within thirty years.
June 2023 was the second hottest month of June ever recorded in France since 1900, behind June 2003. Last summer, heat waves, and in particular a heat wave at the same period in July, caused more than 60,000 deaths in Europe, according to a study by the French National Institute of Health (Inserm) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) published on July 10 in Nature Medicine.
