It is still the heat wave which started at the end of July.
The heat wave affecting France will continue next week, accompanied by rainstorms in the mountain ranges and in Corsica, with a scorching peak expected on Friday in most of the country, Météo France said on Sunday. This Sunday and Monday, only two departments, the Gard and the Vaucluse, are concerned by an orange alert for heat waves which takes into account the effects of heat on human health, in particular when the nights do not cool down, indicated to AFP Christelle Robert, forecaster at Météo France.
“The number of departments in orange vigilance should increase over the week,” she said. On the temperature side, “it will heat up everywhere, we are moving towards a new peak of heat which will affect almost all of France at the end of the week, starting with the south of the country” she specified, the only regions remaining under 30 mid-week degrees being located along the English Channel. “It is not a fourth heat wave, it is the same, which started on July 31, which continues”, even if in certain regions of the north we had had more breathable air for a few days, underlined the forecaster. Sunday at the beginning of the afternoon, the hottest places are located in Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard and Hérault. Welcome thunderstorms hit Corsica, the Pyrenees and the Alps on Sunday.
On Monday, temperatures will rise further in the south-west and the lower Rhône valley, around 35 to 38 degrees on average. And gradually this rise in mercury will spread northward to the Loire on Tuesday, then Burgundy, Ile-de-France and the center-east on Thursday. Despite thunderstorms developing here and there, the historic drought continues. Since July 17, the soil moisture index has fallen below that recorded during the historic droughts of 1976 and 2003, Robert said. The dry standing vegetation being an easy fuel, the risk of fire increases. Thus on Sunday more than 300 hectares burned in Finistère and Morbihan. “The north-easterly wind helps the propagation” underlined Ms. Robert.
Since June 1, Paris has experienced 8 nights where the temperature has been greater than or equal to 20 degrees against only one last summer, 11 in 2020 (for the whole summer), and 16 both in 2003 and in 1976 Nîmes has already experienced 40 nights at this threshold since June 1, compared to 30 in 2021, 41 in 2019, 52 in 2003 and 8 in 1976.