“Remarkable warmth”. Temperatures will be summer on Wednesday with peaks announced “up to 30 to 33 degrees south-west of the Garonne”, according to Météo France. The region, already affected by long and very harsh heat waves this summer, is currently experiencing a new episode of heat. In general, temperatures of up to 28 to 30 degrees are expected in New Aquitaine, 20 to 25 degrees in Brittany, Normandy, Burgundy, Franche-Comté and Languedoc. The maximum will only be between 18 and 22 degrees from Hauts-de-France to the Grand-Est but will be 23 to 28 degrees everywhere else.
“Abnormally high temperatures, observed for several consecutive days, notes Meteo France on its website. But there is no universal definition of the phenomenon: the temperature levels and the duration of the episode which make it possible to characterize it vary according to the regions of the world”.
High temperatures recorded for several days
The thermometer flirted with 34 degrees on Tuesday in the Southwest, an unusual temperature for the month of October according to Météo France. In the Pyrénées Atlantiques, the station of Orthez “equaled its record with 33.8 ° C”, according to a meteorologist from the public establishment. In Biarritz, where it was 31 degrees, walkers took advantage of this mild weather to sunbathe on the beach or go surfing.
It was also 30 degrees in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne), 31 degrees in Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) or 29 degrees in Sarlat-la-Canéda (Dordogne). In Gironde, a temperature of 29 degrees was also recorded in Bordeaux, where the inhabitants were leaning on the terraces of the cafes and sitting in the grass of the public gardens.
The meteorologist at the French organization, François Jobard, already underlined on Sunday an “exceptional late heat in the South-West”, and a “high heat” threshold reached “for the first time in the second half of October”.
A questioning weather forecast
“We ask ourselves questions between the heat waves we had this summer, the fact that it is October and that it is almost 30 degrees”, relates Margaux, a student in a tank top. “We are worried, we tell ourselves that soon winter will be even later than now. Here you have to change the way you consume, your way of life quite simply, ”she says under a bright blue sun.
“We will see in the next few years. If it happens, it will be that temperature on December 25 one day and there it will be really worrying, ”said another student Maïka, for whom “we must not always bring everything back to global warming”.