Bring out the down jackets and après-ski. On the eve of July 14, it snowed heavily on the Pic du Midi, in the Hautes-Pyrénées. While on Sunday, an exhausting heat fell on the Pyrenees, at the beginning of the week the temperatures plummeted, to the point of falling below the fateful bar of zero. Blame it on a mass of cold air from the Atlantic. Having snow in the summer in the mountains happens regularly, but more rarely during this period.
We release at 📷 @PicduMidi #snow the last episode for an early July dates back to 2017 but it was earlier #pyrenees pic.twitter.com/qjknfuSpqM
– Weather Pyrenees (@Meteo_Pyrenees) July 13, 2021
“Usually this focuses on the June periods and from August 15 or 20. It is much rarer between July 1 and August 15. What is exceptional is not so much that it snows at the Pic du Midi, but rather that there is some at 2,400 meters, especially in the Luchonnais and that the snow remains on the ground. It is a phenomenon that has become rare, it was more common forty years ago. The last time we have to go back to 2017, ”explains Christophe Dedieu, president of Météo Pyrénées, an association of volunteers who provide information on mountain conditions on social networks.
It will curdle on the Tour
Nothing to do with the cuckoo snow, which we find in the Pyrenees every other year. It falls in May, when the bird of the same name starts singing again.
The white coat should be kept for a few days at very high altitude but the snow showers should not last beyond this Tuesday evening. On the other hand, the spectators and riders of the Tour de France, which will stage this Wednesday in Saint-Lary, have every interest in taking out the heated shorts because the thermometer should not exceed 10 ° C in altitude.