In recent hours, heat records have fallen one after the other in the South of France. But there is one that is more symbolic than the others: Wednesday, 30.4 degrees were measured at the Mont Aigoual Observatory, at 1,567 meters above sea level. This is the highest temperature ever recorded in this emblematic station, opened in 1895. The last record dated June 28, 2019. It was 29.9 degrees.
“The previously unprecedented threshold of 30 degrees will have been reached for a little over an hour” this Wednesday, details on X (ex-Twitter) Gaétan Heymesforecasting engineer at Météo-France, who evokes a record that “rewrites the history of the climatology of the place”.
The Mont Aigoual weather station was built between 1887 and 1894, between Gard and Lozère. It is one of the last equipments as high still in activity in France.