Since Sunday, and until at least Thursday, an “atmospheric river” has affected France. Called “Express Rum”, what exactly does this meteorological phenomenon correspond to?
It is called “Pineapple express” or “Rum express” depending on the geographical areas where it occurs. Since Sunday December 10, France has been affected by this meteorological phenomenon. Coming from the West Indies and heading towards the Old Continent – and not coming from Hawaii and heading towards North America like its cousin the “Pineapple express” – the “Rhum express” is concretely an atmospheric river which has the consequence of bringing regular rains, which explains the latest alerts from Météo-France in recent days.
The Weather Channel reports that the “Rhum express” is “a rapid circulation of hot and humid air in the form of a fairly narrow corridor (200 to 400 km on average)”, which therefore comes from tropical latitudes to reach temperate regions like France metropolitan. Loaded with humidity, the tropical air finds itself concretely “propelled by a powerful high-altitude jet current”, continues La Chaîne Météo, which details that it is the shock with significantly cooler air which will deepen the depression and “cause an active disturbed system which will dump heavy, lasting precipitation over a fairly geographically restricted continental area. On the program: heavy rain, snowfall, floods, floods and even violent winds.
In mainland France, the phenomenon could continue for several more days. We know, for sure, that on Thursday he will act up again. Météo-France has in fact placed six departments on orange alert for floods, with rain continuing to fall in many departments. For the future, the forecasts promised a calm at the end of the week this weekend. It remains to be seen whether this will be confirmed. According to the official French meteorological service, this is the third time since October that France has been confronted with this phenomenon.