HEAT 2023. The heat wave red alert is launched in 4 departments for Tuesday, and the maximum could reach 42 degrees. Almost all of France is affected by this heatwave episode. What are the forecasts in Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Paris, etc.?
[Mis à jour le 21 août 2023 à 16h07] While France is experiencing the hottest heatwave episode of summer 2023, Météo-France has just announced the passage of 4 departments in heatwave red vigilance from Tuesday August 22, 2023. The Rhône (69), the Drôme (26), Ardèche (07) and Haute-Loire (43). The Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu clarified that this decision was taken “given the persistence of the heat wave and the temperatures”.
In its latest weather report, Météo-France announces scorching temperatures, which can climb up to 42 degrees this Tuesday, August 22. The 30 degrees will be largely exceeded almost everywhere in France. The peak is expected Wednesday and Thursday. We will have to wait until the weekend to see the temperatures finally drop.
Which departments are on heatwave vigilance?
Here is the detailed map of Météo-France:
4 departments on heatwave red vigilance from Tuesday August 22
- Ardèche (07);
- Drome (26);
- Upper Loire (43);
- Rhone (69).
49 departments on heatwave orange vigilance
49 departments, i.e. more than the southern half of the country, are on heat wave orange vigilance. This concerns the following departments: Ain, Allier, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Ardèche, Ariège, Aude, Aveyron, Bouches-du-Rhône, Cantal, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Cher, Corrèze, Haute-Corse, Côte-d’Or, Dordogne, Doubs, Drôme, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Gironde, Hérault, Indre, Isère, Jura, Landes, Loire, Haute-Loire, Lot, Lot-et- Garonne, Lozère, Nièvre, Puy-de-Dôme, Pyrénées-Orientales, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Rhône, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Var, Vaucluse, Haute-Vienne, Territoire de Belfort, and Andorra.
13 departments on heatwave yellow vigilance
Heatwave weather forecast near you
Here are the forecasts of Météo-France in certain major cities, but also the maps of the temperatures expected in the coming days.
- Bordeaux: in the morning, the thermometer will show 25 degrees, and the mercury will climb to 34 degrees this Tuesday, August 22.
- Lyon: it will already be very hot in the morning with 27 degrees. 38 degrees are expected Tuesday afternoon.
- Montélimar: the thermometer will show 27 degrees this Tuesday morning, and up to 39 degrees in the afternoon.
- Montpellier: 28 degrees are forecast for Tuesday morning, and the mercury will reach 36 degrees at the hottest of the day.
- Nîmes: it will already be 29 in the morning of Tuesday, and up to 39 degrees in the afternoon.
- Paris: the maximum temperature expected on Tuesday is 30 degrees.
- Toulouse: 25 degrees are expected in the morning, and it will be up to 26 degrees in the afternoon.
A special heatwave toll-free number activated
While France is experiencing the heatwave episode “the hottest of summer 2023” according to Météo-France, the government has decided to activate the national telephone platform Heatwave info service, announced the Ministry of Health in a press release relayed by France Blue. A decision taken at the end of an interministerial crisis unit organized on August 17 at the initiative of the Prime Minister. This green number can be reached from 0800 06 66 66, and is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Ministry of Health indicates that this number “allows you to obtain advice to protect yourself and those around you, in particular the most fragile, and to adopt the right reflexes in the event of high heat”. In addition to the activation of this platform, prevention messages are also broadcast on television and radio, specifies The echoes.
What is a heatwave?
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.
What is the heat wave plan put in place this year?
On June 8, 2023, the government announced the various actions implemented as part of its heat wave plan to protect the population during intense heat waves.
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, while 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