Météo-France has decided to place 19 departments on orange alert for thunderstorms starting at 4pm this Saturday. Wind gusts, which could locally reach 110 km/h, are also expected, as are local hailstorms.
The greatest vigilance is required. After the heat of this month of August, the return of storms is expected for this weekend of August 24. Sometimes violent, these storms will break out over a large part of the country, from the southwest to the northeast of France from the beginning of the afternoon. Nineteen departments have thus been placed on orange alert as a precaution by Météo-France from 4pm this Saturday.
The departments concerned are as follows: Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Ariège, Gers, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Aveyron, Lot, Cantal, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, Saône-et-Loire, Côte-d’Or, Haute-Saône, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Meuse, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle.
Strong gusts of wind expected
“The first storms will start in the south of Occitanie from mid-afternoon, and may be accompanied by high rainfall (30 to 50 mm in one to two hours) as well as local hail,” the meteorological institute indicated in its latest bulletin. These accumulations of rain may also be accompanied by strong gusts of wind. This is the case in Burgundy, but also from the Massif Central to the Grand-Est, where the phenomenon will be scrutinized particularly closely, hence the “special vigilance” of Météo-France. Gusts of around 80 to 100 km/h are likely to occur in the departments of the former Midi-Pyrénées region, or even 90 to 110 km/h from Auvergne to Burgundy via Lorraine.