The summer of 2023, marked by an exceptional heat wave at the end of August, is among the hottest historically measured in France, only beaten by the record summer of 2003 and the two very recent summers of 2022 and 2018, announced Monday Météo-France. Over June-July-August, “the average temperature of 21.8°C is above the 1991-2020 normal of 1.4°C,” the national meteorological organization said in a report.
Thus “the summer of 2023 ranks 4th among the hottest summers since 1900”, behind the summers of 2003 (2.7°C) and 2022 (2.3°), and “almost at the same level” as the summer 2018 (1.5°). “Summer 2023 was marked by often gloomy conditions over north-western France in July and August, very stormy from the South-West to the Center-East and extremely hot over the Mediterranean regions which suffered three waves of heat,” notes Météo-France. At the national level, two periods of heat affected the country: “after an almost generalized hot sequence from July 8 to 11 and particularly marked in the Southeast, a late heat wave affected a large part of the country from August 17-24.
For each month across France, “the average temperature was above normal for the season”, i.e. 2.6°C in June, 0.8°C in July and 0.9°C in August . This is the 19th month in a row that national monthly temperatures have not fallen below seasonal norms, calculated over the period 1991-2020 when the effects of global warming were already observable in France. The heat wave at the end of August, when temperatures exceeded 40°C for several days in part of the south of France, was exceptionally late, illustrating the warnings of climatologists concerning the increase in the severity of heat waves, but also their precocity or their late onset, due to human-induced climate change.
The beginning of September is no exception to these forecasts: “a persistent episode of high heat has set in over the country” since Sunday, recalls Météo-France. “We are expecting unprecedented temperatures for the month of September over a large south-west quarter, with no real cooling […] foreseen before at least Sunday”. “The duration of this episode of high heat and its intensity so late in the season are remarkable across the country,” notes Météo-France.
