No more departments are on orange alert this Sunday, January 5. A snow and ice alert which was short-lived but which still caused a death on the roads.
It was a flash of orange vigilance, but a tragedy still occurred. Météo-France had classified 30 departments on orange vigilance for snow and ice from late Saturday afternoon and around fifteen until very early this Sunday, January 5 in the morning. The meteorological expert then called for the greatest vigilance, mainly on the roads this weekend back from vacation.
The prefectures of the areas affected by the orange vigilance had also alerted, closed sections of the road and lowered the speed. Several accidents still took place. In Côte-d’Or alone, sixteen road accidents have been recorded, causing sixty victims, including two seriously injured, and one dead, according to APRR (Paris-Rhin-Rhône Motorway). It concerns a young man of twenty years old, who died in an accident on the A6 in Burgundy. Weather conditions are believed to be the cause of the accident.
A quick warm-up
Météo-France explains this episode of snow and ice in the north-eastern quarter of France by a wave of warm air, coming from the south-west, which encountered very cold air. The temperature difference caused this disturbance. It must be said that it was particularly cold on Saturday January 4, with the mercury sometimes dropping to -2°C and very often to 0°C. The heat finally had the upper hand as temperatures rose to around ten degrees in the north-eastern quarter this Sunday morning. It will be between 10°C in Metz and 14°C in Auxerre. The rain will be present for two more days, and the sun will return at the same time as a drop in temperatures on Tuesday January 7.