The cold that has been present in France for more than a week continues to spread to the north of the country with snow and ice.
This Tuesday, January 16 in the morning, Meteo France has placed several departments in the north of France on orange alert for snow/ice. These are Manche, Calvados, Orne, Eure-et-Loire, the departments of Île-de-France, Loiret, Yonne, Côte-d’ Or, from Haute-Marne and Haute-Saône. The Weather Channel explains this new episode of cold with the arrival of the “depression called Irene which rises from the Bay of Biscay then crosses the north of the country between Tuesday and Thursday”. France finds itself “in the middle of an air mass conflict this mid-week” which results in “a significant episode of freezing rain”.
Snow returns to France this week and it is expected this Tuesday evening “from Cotentin to the interior of Normandy” as indicated by La Chaîne Météo. She specifies that between 2 and 5 cm of snow are expected. Snowfall should become widespread “on a narrow axis between Lower Normandy, the Ardennes to the north of Lorraine, passing through Nord-Pas-de-Calais” during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. The snow is expected to linger in Nord-Pas-de-Calais during the morning of Wednesday January 17.
The Weather Channel forecasts snow for Wednesday afternoon “north of an approximate line going from Abbeville to Cambrai” in Hauts-de-France. The site also announces “snow which will continue to progress towards the south and intensify between Upper Normandy, Picardy and the Ardennes.” She also adds that the snow “will gain ground towards Lower Normandy, Ile-de-France and the north of Champagne where the soils will begin to whiten at the end of the evening.”
The Weather Channel announces a similar pattern for Thursday 18, although with more moderate snowfall. If on average, 2 to 3 cm of snow is expected in the departments concerned, La Chaîne Météo specifies that it should fall this Wednesday “1 to 5 cm in the far north, the Normandy coasts and the north of the Island- de-France, 5-10 cm in the interior of Lower Normandy, up to the hills of Artois and 10-15 cm, locally 20 cm from the interior of Upper Normandy to the Ardennes”. During this episode, temperatures should remain between -9°C and 6°C in the northern half. These low temperatures and the few rainy precipitations that could occur during the week can lead to the presence of icy conditions. It is therefore necessary to be particularly vigilant on the roads, especially secondary roads.
The departments adjacent to the diagonal drawn by Météo France are also affected by this cold episode. Brittany in particular is at the heart of a risk of heavy rain until Thursday. The meteorological agency specifies that for the moment the risk mainly concerns Finistère and Morbihan but vigilance is required for the other Breton departments. The Weather Channel is indeed announcing a significant episode of rain in Morbihan from this Wednesday and which will spread to the rest of the region during the week. For this Wednesday, the site forecasts “20 to 30 mm of water in Brittany, up to 90 mm in 24 hours in Morbihan”. Météo France also indicates that “freezing rain” could occur.