Five departments of the South-West in vigilance red rains, floods or floods

The weather situation is not improving in the Pyrenees. Météo-France has even raised the level of its alerts in the South West. After the passage of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Landes in red for flood risks, the public establishment placed the Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Ariège and Pyrénées-Atlantiques on Sunday evening in maximum rain-flood vigilance .

Four other departments are also on orange alert: the Gers, the North and the Aisne for flood risks, and the Pyrénées-Orientales for avalanches, according to the latest weather report. The principality of Andorra has also been placed on orange avalanche vigilance.

“Due to bad weather conditions and the state of the roads”, the traffic on the RN 320 and the RN 22, allowing to reach Andorra, “was prohibited to all vehicles”, announced the prefectures of the Pyrenees. -Orientales and Ariège.

Rain until Tuesday

The pluvio-snow episode intensified on Sunday evening, with moderate activity sometimes quite strong (rainfall intensities between 3 to 7 mm / h), and a rain-snow limit at an altitude of 1,000 m at the start of the night on the Ariège, and above 2,000 m in the departments further west. The episode should strengthen and continue until the evening of Monday with a drop in rainfall intensities then, slower on the east of the chain. It should end on Tuesday morning.

In the Pyrenees, “the main risk will be below 2,000 to 2,200 m altitude where the avalanche activity of wet snow will spread from west to east”. The medium mountain road sectors (above about 1,500 m) will be affected by numerous slopes, and locally by a very large avalanche in corridors where snow has accumulated on Sunday

The Gave d’Oloron in red vigilance

Above 2,200 m, avalanche activity will increase with the accumulation of snow and the overload caused by the heavier snow. According to Météo-France, “large spontaneous avalanches could occur in the usual corridors and threaten the infrastructures of high mountain resorts”.

The Vigicrues monitoring network for its part indicated that a “major flood” of the Gave d’Oloron, classified as red vigilance, is expected from the middle of the night in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and downstream, in the Landes, and should surpass its level of last December. In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, school transport to schools and colleges in the Aspe and Ossau valleys, and to high schools in Pau, Mauléon and Oloron-Sainte-Marie from these areas, will be canceled on Monday. The prefecture “advises” parents against taking their children to school and calls for “limiting” travel “to the strict minimum” in these valleys. Train traffic between Oloron-Sainte-Marie and Bedous will also be suspended on Monday.


source site