Three departments have been placed on orange alert for storms this Saturday by Météo-France. Significant accumulations of rain, hail, and even gusts of wind up to 100 km/h are expected in the departments concerned.
Vigilance is required in three departments. This Saturday, August 31, part of the territory will experience rainy weather with frequent showers, even thunderstorms. As a precautionary measure, Météo-France has therefore decided to place three departments on orange alert for storms. These are Landes, Gironde from 6 p.m. and Pyrénées-Atlantiques from 8 p.m. In the same vein, but with lesser surveillance, 48 other departments have been placed by the meteorological institute on yellow alert for storms.
The storms, which will follow one another in waves until Sunday evening, will be punctuated by periods of temporary calm before a new deterioration is expected in the southwest of the country on Saturday evening. The disturbance, which is coming from the Iberian Peninsula, should move up the Basque coast at the end of the day before reaching “the Arcachon basin area early in the night from Saturday to Sunday”.
Heavy rain, hail and gusty winds expected
The weather phenomenon could be more or less violent locally. Wind gusts of up to 80 or even 100 km/h are expected, as well as hail and rainfall totals of around 40 mm “in a short time”, warns Météo-France. “The most violent storms will primarily affect the departments placed on orange alert, but an extension to neighboring departments is possible”, the institute specified in its bulletin.
The start of the school year is thus looking grey. On Sunday, a large part of the west of France will be under rain with marked intensity. The rain should also persist before spreading to the western half of the country. In the east, the weather will be milder with thunderstorms expected only in the mountainous areas.