Winter is intensifying in a few days in France. Over a large part of the territory, a spell of cold and snow is expected.
The French will soon face a significant drop in temperatures. Traveled by “a northerly wind of polar origin channeled between an anticyclone on the Atlantic and disturbances descending from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean”, the country will not be spared by snow and gusts of wind according to The Weather Channelwhich warns: the cold will intensify and winter will enter a new phase.
Due to “a fairly active disturbance coming down from the British Isles”, heavy rain is expected over three quarters of the territory, starting this Saturday. A gust of wind of more than 100 km/h is also expected in the regions neighboring the Channel. According to recent estimates, only a quarter of the southeast could be spared.
As for temperatures, they will decrease during the day with a rather mild morning despite an afternoon spent under the wind and in the rain, with a wintry feeling in the north. On the other hand, on the Côte d’Azur, it is between 4 and 9°C in the morning and 7 to 12°C in the afternoon with a peak of 15°C, indicates La Chaîne Météo.
The real date of the cold snap is the next day. It is in fact this Sunday, December 8 that the weather suddenly cools down. From the Pyrenees to the east of the country, showers are increasing, with an altitude between the flakes and the raindrops dropping by 500 to 900 meters depending on the massifs.
Behind, the air cooled by a north wind causes sleet, a downpour accompanied by wind, hail and snow. On the Mediterranean side, however, no snow. Only the mistral and the tramontane (a coastal wind coming from the northwest) cause violent disturbances in the area.
From the Alsace plain to the deep blue, we go from 0 to 5°C in the morning to 3 to 10°C in the afternoon. With these 2 to 3°C below seasonal norms, the feeling can be considered cold, particularly in regions and mountains exposed to the north wind.
A cold period is expected thereafter since “temperatures should remain 2 to 3°C below normal throughout the week of December 8 to 13,” insists La Chaîne Météo. Be careful, due to the disturbances and the coming cold, traffic conditions may prove difficult in the lower mountains from Sunday. Remember that it is also obligatory to equip your vehicle with winter tires or to have snow chains or socks, in certain municipalities in the mountainous massifs (Alps, Corsica, Massif central, Jura massif, Pyrenees, Vosges massif) until ‘in March 2025.