A month of October in a T-shirt in Paris, or a very light little sweater, it’s been a long time since we’ve known that. With days at 20, 21 or even 23 degrees, this beginning of autumn felt like summer for many Parisians, as for many French men and women. So, is it exceptional? Unnatural ? Worrying?
Indeed, the capital and even Ile-de-France experienced temperatures between “two and three degrees above normal for the month of October”, confirms to 20 Minutes Lois Pourchet, forecaster at the media team of Meteo France. “For Paris, it is the duration of the phenomenon that is remarkable. We broke a record over the last ten days of the month, ”adds the expert. On the days of October 17 to 26, Ile-de-France and Paris recorded around six degrees more than at the same period in previous years.
“Roped Heat Feather”
Blame it on the climate crisis, and on a phenomenon called the “roped heat feather” which acts at the national and even global level. “It is not a scientific term strictly speaking, but it helps to explain the dynamics of this extraordinary event” writes Christophe Cassou, research director at the CNRS and main author of the sixth IPCC report, on his Twitter account. “This week’s heat plume is the result of a dynamic planetary-scale undulatory circulation originating in the Pacific, with amplification over the Atlantic along the propagation of the wave”, summarizes the scientist .
This “wave dynamic circulation” is however not disconnected from the phenomenon of global warming regularly recalled. “Thus, it is extremely likely that human influence is the main contributing factor to the observed increase in intensity. [et de la] frequency of hot extremes and the observed decrease in intensity [et de la] frequency of cold extremes on a global scale”, writing the scientist again.
Over the year, there are 217 days above seasonal norms in the capital, according to BFM TV.