With heavy rain expected, three departments in the South-East of France will be placed on orange “rain-flood” alert, Saturday March 9 from 4 p.m., Météo-France announced on Friday. These are the Alpes-Maritimes, Var and Ardèche. Furthermore, Charente-Maritime remains on orange flood alert.
“In the afternoon of Saturday, the rains will intensify in the Cévennes initially and in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur secondly. This episode will end on Sunday morning,” writes the meteorological organization in its vigilance bulletin.
Météo-France specifies that “the expected accumulations in the Ardèche Cévennes will be between 150 and 250 mm. In the East of the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes, accumulations of between 100 and 120 mm, locally more, are expected. In the Alpes-Maritimes for example, these “predicted accumulations may represent the equivalent of more than a month of precipitation” usual in March.
Level orange is third on a scale of four and calls on the public to be “highly vigilant,” due to “anticipated dangerous phenomena.” In particular, it is recommended to avoid traveling or approaching watercourses.