A “rain-storm storm” is preparing to reach the south of France tonight. This phenomenon will affect Gard and Hérault, departments placed on orange alert by Météo-France for rain and flooding, Saturday September 15. This stormy episode will begin Friday night, and will mark the first Mediterranean episode of the season.
These rainfall totals “could be locally higher, particularly in the Cévennes,” he adds. The Pyrenean Piedmont, then the north of the Gard and Hérault plains will also be affected. The expected accumulations over 24 hours are in the range of 100 to 140 mm. Strong gusts of wind under thunderstorms are also possible,” specifies the prefecture of the Southern defense and security zone in a press release.
Orange vigilance is in effect in Gard and Hérault from 3 a.m. Saturday until the end of the day. Twenty-four French departments in total – located on the Atlantic coast or in the South-Eastern quarter – were placed on yellow alert for storms or rain and floods on Saturday by Météo-France.
“We are going to enter a period of more or less heavy rain, from tomorrow we will have the first of the rainy episodes,” explained Christophe Mirmand, prefect of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’ region, at a press conference on Friday. Azure (Paca).
“These episodes are the consequences of the upwelling of warm and humid air from the Mediterranean which occurs critically from mid-September to mid-December, a period when the sea is warmer, which favors evaporation,” a -he added, emphasizing that “the resulting floods can be very sudden and very dangerous.”
Torrential rains and Storm Daniel have hit eastern Libya since last week, including the town of Derna, where two dams built in the 1970s gave under the pressure of torrential rainfall. The resulting floods killed thousands and swept entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean.