Will real winter weather return soon? After a particularly long Mediterranean episode at the beginning of February, then exceptionally mild temperatures in recent days, a completely different time will await the inhabitants of a good half of France from Thursday February 22, 2024. Météo France has in fact warned of the arrival of the Louis depression, which will undoubtedly bring back bad memories of storm Isha which hit the country at the end of January. Thus, to alert residents, allow them to anticipate bad weather, but also protect themselves, Météo France has placed the northern half of the country in orange vigilance for “strong wind”, and more precisely 19 departments. Thus, the North, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne, Oise, Seine-Maritime, Eure, Calvados, Manche, Orne, Val-d’Oise, Seine-Saint-Denis, but also Val-de-Marne, Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, and even Essonne and Eure-et-Loir are concerned.
Winds up to 120 km/h expected Thursday February 22, 2024
As is often the case, it is the Manche and North departments which will be the first affected at the start of the afternoon on Thursday February 22, 2024, before the winds cause the clouds to move further inland. It is also not excluded, for Météo France, to put other departments on Orange “wind” alert, particularly those located along the Pyrenees. These winds will be accompanied strong gusts, which can reach 90 to 100 km/h inland (peaks of 110 km/h are expected), and 120 km/h on the coasts.
Rain will also be there, to the point where the departments of Vendée and Deux-Sèvres will be placed on orange rain-flood alert. Cumulative amounts of rain of up to 30 to 50 mm are also expected, with peaks of up to 60 mm. Other departments are also on yellow alert for both “strong wind” and “rain-flooding”, bringing their total number to 65. Finally, Météo France advises limit travel as much as possible in the areas most at risk, and warn of the risk of power cuts and falling treesor even disruption of road traffic.