Thunder from Brest! Placed on yellow alert for violent winds and rain flooding due to the arrival of storm Nelson, the department of Finistère knew that it was going to be watered this night.
What he expected less was that snowflakes would fall on the Pointe de la Bretagne department. However, this is what happened during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in certain areas of Finistère. If some forecasters had envisaged light snowfall on the heights of the Monts d’Arrée, they did not imagine that the flakes could reach Brest.
However, several testimonies and videos relayed on social networks attest to these snowfalls. A rare phenomenon for March 27 which would be due to isothermal.
For this to happen, the precipitation must be intense and the air at altitude must be particularly cold. By falling in quantity from the sky, rain will bring low temperatures to low altitudes, potentially transforming the water into flakes. This same phenomenon seems to have occurred on Wednesday in several departments, notably in Haute-Loire, where several centimeters of snow were recorded.
A mini-tornado in Vendée
A mini-tornado hit around sixty houses on Wednesday evening on the island of Yeu, in Vendée, the town hall announced. “It happened in a fraction of a second, a deafening noise and a wind of unprecedented violence,” says a resident, according to whom “the roofs of the entire neighborhood need to be redone.” According to the first elements available from the Vendée prefecture, the meteorological phenomenon does not seem to have caused major damage.
Seven departments on orange vigilance
Seven departments are still placed on alert this Thursday by Météo-France due to the risk of strong winds and precipitation: Finistère, Côtes-d’Armor, Loire-Atlantique, Vendée, Charente-Maritime, Deux- Sèvres but also the Var, affected by a wave-submersion phenomenon.
Winds of more than 180 km/h have already been recorded on the Breton tip this Thursday.