HEAT WAVE AUGUST 2022. For the fourth time this summer, France is in the grip of a new heat wave in this second week of August. 16 departments were placed in heat wave orange vigilance by Météo France, Wednesday August 10, 2022.
[Mis à jour le 10 août 2022 à 11h46] For the fourth time since the beginning of the summer, France is in the grip of a new heat wave. Wednesday, August 10, the West of France is particularly affected. Thus, Météo France has placed 16 departments on orange alert. According to Météo France, “in the west of the country, on the other hand, the heat is still increasing. Maximum temperatures will still rise by 1 to 2°C. They will reach 34 to 37°C in the Pays-de-la- Loire in Poitou-Charentes, and 36 to 38°C generally in the South-West with local peaks at 39 or 40°C.” The public establishment estimates that “the high temperatures will continue to spread towards the northwest and then the north of the country. The minimum temperatures will be on the rise, in particular in the South-West. On the departments in orange vigilance, the maximum temperatures will often reach 36 to 38°C, in the South-West, they may even reach or locally exceed 40°C”.
This Wednesday, August 10, 2022, like the day before, the temperature remains high over a large part of the territory. As indicated by Météo France, the strong heat is mainly concentrated in the West and goes up to the North. Thus, temperatures are 38°C in Toulouse and Bordeaux, 36°C in Rennes and 35°C in Nantes and Lyon and 34°C in Paris and Biarritz.
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?
This beginning of August 2022 will have been marked by strong heat, with a fourth heat wave. This Wednesday, August 10 could be the peak of heat. Here are the forecasts for Meteo France :
- Paris : Wednesday August 10, 2022, the mercury reached 33°C in the capital. Temperatures will remain substantially the same for the rest of the week with 32 and 33°C expected Thursday and Friday in the capital.
- Aix en Provence : the city in the South-East of France is breathing a little better this Wednesday August 10. It is 33°C in Aix-en-Provence. The thermometer should show the same temperature on Thursday and Friday.
- Bordeaux : the prefecture of Gironde is also affected by the heat wave. She was placed on orange alert. On Wednesday August 10, the thermometer read 36°C. On Wednesday and Thursday, the high temperatures will still be present with 37°C expected.
- Lyons : It was hot in Lyon this Wednesday. The thermometer reads 35°C. This will also be the case this Thursday. On Friday, the mercury should reach 34°C.
- reindeer : the days of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are placed under the sign of the heat in Rennes, it is, and will be, 34°C in the Breton commune.
- Marseilles : Marseille is relatively spared by the high temperatures. Temperatures are dropping this week. Wednesday, August 10, the temperature is 32°C. Thursday and Friday, the mercury will show, respectively, 31°C and 30°C.
- Toulouse : the thermometer reads 35°C, Tuesday August 9th. The following days will also be very hot with 36°C expected on Wednesday August 10 and 35°C expected on Thursday.
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