Since Monday, part of France has been suffocating under exhausting temperatures. Starting from the south, this heat wave reached the Rhône valley to affect a large part of the country on Wednesday, with peaks reaching locally in the South-West up to 38.5 ° C. Faced with these surges, seven departments in the south-west and the Rhône were placed on orange vigilance during the heat wave and 24 on yellow vigilance, the temperatures not falling below certain thresholds at night.
Peak Sunday and Monday
But the French have not finished sweating profusely over the next few days. On Thursday, temperatures south of the Loire will be above 35°C and could reach 40°C in the south-west and the lower Rhône valley. If a small lull is expected on Thursday and Friday in the northern half of the country, Meteo France indeed expects a rise in the thermometer everywhere on the territory this weekend, with scorching temperatures from Sunday.
“We could occasionally exceed 40° on Sunday and Monday, especially in the South-West. From Tuesday, on the Atlantic coast, a cooling should take place. It will progress eastward on Wednesday, pushing the high temperatures further east, ”explains Matthieu Chevalier, forecaster at Météo-France on the eve of this big weekend.
Not far from the records of 2003 and 2019
This is the 45th heat wave that has affected France since the start of Météo-France records in 1947, the last dating from less than a month. “More than half of them started in July. That of July 2019 had been very intense, we had reached 43° in the Center and Ile-de-France regions. Others are also famous like that of 2003. Heat waves are also marked by their duration, sometimes more than fifteen days, like those of the months of 1983, 2016 and 2018”, recalls Matthieu Sorel, climatologist.
This ongoing episode is expected to last “eight to ten days.” “This heat wave will be particularly intense and long-lasting in the southern regions of the country. Monthly temperature records will be approached or even exceeded during the peak of this episode, Sunday or Monday. Monday could be one of the hottest ever recorded across France. The record for the national thermal indicator is 29.4° dating from July 25, 2019 and August 3, 2003. We could approach this value”, continues Matthieu Sorel.
This heat wave will therefore be much more intense and longer than the one experienced last June. And for now, forecasters can’t say if it will last next week. “We see that there will be a drop of a few degrees, but not drastically, on Wednesday and Thursday. But we cannot say with certainty when it will stop”, warns Claire Chanal, forecaster at Météo-France.
While waiting to see more clearly about its length, it is clear that this heat wave could join those of 2019 and 2003, in particular for the regions of the Garonne valley and the lower Rhône valley.