Météo-France has lifted the orange heatwave alert for a large part of the country, but 9 departments in the south-east remain affected by high temperatures and the orange alert.
A heat wave has been hitting France since Sunday. While nearly half of the country was on alert in recent days, a return to almost normal has been announced since Friday morning, August 2. Only 9 departments are kept on orange heatwave alert: Hérault, Gard, Bouches de Rhône, Vaucluse, Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes and the two Corsica departments.
In its Friday morning bulletin, Météo France announced that the following departments should be removed from the orange heatwave alert this weekend:
- Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse Saturday at 6 a.m.;
- Var, Gard, Hérault Saturday at 10 p.m.
Only Corsica and Bouches-du-Rhône will remain on orange heatwave alert this weekend.
The day was very hot yesterday, and “40°C were exceeded near the Mediterranean and in Corsica yesterday Thursday with in particular 41.2°C at Arc in the Var” indicates Météo-France in its weather report of Friday morning. This Friday morning at 5am, the temperatures were also very high in the south-east, and the weather agency noted for example 27.1°C in Istres or 27.7°C in Aigues-Mortes.
For today, the mercury will still rise well near the Mediterranean including Corsica, with 35 to 39°C locally. 35 degrees are expected in Montpellier, 34 degrees in Corsica and Gap, 33 degrees in Perpignan and 32 degrees in Montélimar. The rest of the country returns to seasonal temperatures, much more pleasant, between 21 and 27 degrees in the northern half of France.
Although this heatwave is intense, it is short-lived, and no department has been placed on red alert. However, peaks will have reached 40°C this week, particularly in Gironde, in some of the departments of the Mediterranean basin or in Deux-Sèvres. On Monday, Météo France was able to record at the hottest time of the day: 40.9°C in Grospierres in Ardèche, 40.6°C in Moules-et-Baucels in Hérault, 39.6°C in Villaries in Haute-Garonne, 39.4°C in Brive in Corrèze, 38.9°C in Auch in Gers, 38.8°C in Bordeaux (Gironde) or 38.7°C in Orange in Vaucluse.