HEAT WAVE AUGUST 2022. A new wave of heat should hit France from Wednesday August 10. What temperatures are expected? Here is the weather forecast for the week.
[Mis à jour le 07 août 2022 à 16h47] Heat waves have been linked in France since the beginning of summer 2022. After a brief drop in temperatures, a new heat wave is expected during the week, with temperature peaks of 38°C in Toulouse and Bordeaux. , Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 August. During the week, the thermometer will show more than 30°C in the majority of cities in France. They will last until Friday August 12, when maximum temperatures of 35°C will be expected in Paris and Lyon. That same day, 36°C are forecast in Rennes and Toulouse, as well as 38°C in Bordeaux. In just two months, France has already experienced four heat waves. This situation aggravates the historic drought affecting France.
Sunday August 7, the departments of Gard and Vaucluse are on heat wave orange vigilance. In addition, 27 departments are placed in heat wave yellow vigilance by Météo France, this represents 15 more than the day before. According to Météo France, the lower Rhône valley is undergoing a heat wave of “less intensity than the previous one, but lasting in the Rhône valley and around the Mediterranean”. In this area, the heat persisted on Sunday August 7, with maximum temperatures of 34°C to 37°C inland, around the Mediterranean. In the Gard, 35°C to 37°C are expected locally, with 38°C south of the Cévennes. In Vaucluse, maximum temperatures are around 34°C to 36°C in the west and south.
As a reminder, we speak of a heat wave when these four characteristics are combined:
- a period of high heat;
- with temperatures five degrees higher than normal for the season;
- the day and the night ;
- for three consecutive days.
When is this new heat wave expected? How long will it last? Where ? What are forecasters predicting for the days and weeks to come? What are the steps to take to protect yourself from the heat and cool your home?
What are the temperatures expected in France in the coming days?
This beginning of August 2022 will have been marked by strong heat, with a fourth heat wave to be feared around August 10. Here are the forecasts for Meteo France :
- Paris : Sunday August 7, the mercury reached 28°C in the capital. Next week, the thermometer will rise every day, with 31°C on Tuesday and 34°C on Wednesday. Météo France predicts mercury of up to 35°C on Friday.
- Aix en Provence : the city is already under the heat on Sunday August 7, with temperatures of 35°C. Next week, temperatures will rise to 34°C, Wednesday August 10th.
- Albi : Sunday August 7 afternoon, temperatures rose to 36°C. Next week, 36°C and 37°C maximum are announced on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday a peak of 39°C is expected in the city, as well as 38°C on Friday.
- Lyons : It was up to 32 degrees this weekend in Lyon. According to Météo France, next week, the mercury could rise to 35°C on Wednesday August 10.
- Grenoble : 32°C were recorded this weekend in Grenoble, before a week when the mercury could climb to 35°C on Wednesday. All week, temperatures between 31°C and 34°C are expected.
- Reindeer: Sunday August 7, it was up to 29°C in Rennes. Next week, 33°C are indicated on Tuesday, before temperatures rise to 36°C on Friday.
- Marseilles: the first weekend of August was hot in Marseille with a maximum of 33°C on Sunday August 7th. Next week, the mercury may rise to 33°C on Wednesday.
- Toulouse: the thermometer showed up to 35°C, Sunday August 7th. It will be hot from the start of next week, with 35°C expected on Monday, 37°C on Tuesday. The maximum announced is 38°C on Wednesday August 10.
Heat wave 2022: after two heat waves (June and July), a very hot month of August in sight?
France is going through a third heat wave in less than two months, and probably a fourth in the second week of the month! The beginning of August promises to be scorching, especially in the south-east of the country. Here’s what forecasters predict The Weather Channel until mid-August:
- Week of August 8 to 14: the respite will have been short-lived after the third heat wave episode, since the specialists announce a fourth heat wave in this second week of August with up to 37°C in Bordeaux on Tuesday and 36°C in Poitiers on Wednesday.
- Week of August 15 to 21: thunderstorms are expected to break out in most of the country, bringing some freshness to France. However, this short parenthesis will not manage to fill the drought, according to La Chaîne Météo.
- Week of August 22 to 28: according to the trends observed by Météo France, temperatures in August should remain well above normal for the season.
What are the recommendations to follow during the heat wave?
Heat wave, heat peak, heat wave and heat dome: what are the differences?
Heat wave and heat wave are two different things. To speak of a heat wave, the temperatures must be five degrees higher than normal for the season, day and night, and this for at least three days and three nights. The heat wave temperature threshold therefore differs according to the departments and regions. Heat waves most often occur in France in July and August. We must be vigilant from the month of June. High temperatures, even above seasonal norms, do not necessarily mean a heat wave. Most often, these are heat waves.
The term heat peak is more to be used during a sudden rise in temperature, whereas a heat wave corresponds to a longer episode. Météo France judges that a heat wave is in progress when temperatures above the monthly average are detected by more than three degrees Celsius, for at least three days.
Finally, heat dome is another term used. It settled over almost all of France in May 2022. This meteorological phenomenon is explained by a large mass of hot air from Morocco and Spain, trapped by atmospheric pressure. This usually occurs in summer, but also in spring. It results in scorching heat.
Météo France provides several levels of heat wave vigilance: level 1 (green) corresponds to a “seasonal watch”, level 2 (yellow) to a “heat warning” and it is level 3 (orange) which corresponds to “the ‘heat wave alert’. Finally, level 4 (red), the highest, determines “maximum mobilization”. In summer, it is not uncommon for several departments to be placed on orange or red alert for the heat wave.
Heat wave: what are the temperature records recorded in recent years?
If the heat wave of the summer of 2003 remains in everyone’s memory (and that of 1976 also among the old), France has since experienced other episodes of very hot weather. In summer 2019, several absolute temperature records were reached in different cities. According to data from Météo France, 50 cities had thus recorded a new record since July 25, 2019. While the summer of 2019 had been very hot, some records were broken during the heat wave of mid-June 2022. During the day heat wave of Saturday June 18, 2022: 150 municipalities broke a heat record, according to meteorologist Patrick Marlière, interviewed by BFM TV: “We went from 70 cities with broken monthly records, to more than 150 today in France, from the Pyrenees to the Belgian border”. The city of Nantes thus broke its record for the month of June with 39.1°C. In the South-West, records at more than 40 degrees have been reached: Biarritz with 42.9°, Saint-Jean-de-Luz with 42° or Bordeaux with 40°.
The July 2022 heat wave also set temperature records on Monday July 18. Of the 63 records recorded that day, the majority are in the north, west or southwest. We can cite :
- Beaulieu-sur-Layon (49): 42.7°C
- Biscarrosse (40): 42.6°C
- Nantes (44): 42°C
- La Roche-sur-Yon (85): 41.5°C
- Cholet (49): 41.3°C
- Niort (79): 41°C
- Rennes (35): 40.5°C
- Caen (14): 40.1°C
- Dinard (35): 40°C
- Saint-Brieuc (22): 39.7°C
- Noirmoutier (85): 38.7°C
- Lorient (56): 37.6°C
- Brest (29): 39.3
- The island of Yeu (85): 35.9°C