During the night from Monday to Tuesday, snow sometimes fell unexpectedly in certain departments. Nine of them (Yvelines, Essonne, Calvados, Orne, Eure, Manche, then Isère, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Eure-et-Loir) were placed on orange alert for snow and black ice by Météo-France, Tuesday January 9. “A snowy axis extends from the Paris region to Lower Normandy. The amounts of snow that fell were higher than expected. Patches of road ice are also forming,” wrote in the morning the meteorological organization in its morning bulletin.
“A snowy axis extends from the Paris region to Lower Normandy with refreezing due to very low temperatures. Snowfall is increasingly light and does not lead to additional accumulations. It snows very lightly in Rhône-Alpes but the intensity of snowfall tends to increase, particularly from Isère to Jura.details Météo-France.
“At 11 a.m., we observed 3 to 7 centimeters of snow in Normandy, very locally a little more, and 1 to 3 centimeters in the south of the Paris region, very locally 5 centimeters in Yvelines”it is further added.
The A12 and A13 motorways in the west of the Ile-de-France region were temporarily closed Tuesday morning due to snow that fell overnight. Some “400 vehicles” were also blocked on the roads of Ile-de-France, said the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune.
The police headquarters announced in a press release that prefect Laurent Nuñez had “decided to activate level 2 of the icy snow plan in Ile-de-France”. From 2 p.m., precautionary measures were applied, including “the speed limit of 70 km/h on the main roads of Ile-de-France”And “the ban on overtaking maneuvers for vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes” on these same axes.
In Orne and Calvados, school transport has been banned for the day. In Eure-et-Loir, the circulation of all buses – school and regular lines – is suspended. The firefighters intervened in around twenty accidents, ” Without gravity “, throughout the department.
“A hundred” “minor” accidents during the night
“It’s in the process of being resolved”said the minister on RMCevoking up to “1,000 vehicles”heavy goods vehicles and individual cars, which were blocked “at the beginning of the night”, “800” early morning. “All means available”in particular recovery vehicles and snow spreaders, “are mobilized”he added, assuring “those who have experienced and are still experiencing hardship” that “everything is done to resolve them as quickly as possible”.
According to Mr. Beaune, who mentioned ” one hundred “ accidents ” Without gravity “ during the night, disturbances are concentrated ” on the roads “. For its part, the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisien (RATP) declared to Agence France-Presse that the bus lines it operates on behalf of Ile-de-France Mobilités “circulation[aient] normally this morning ». “Some lines from the south-east and south-west sectors of Ile-de-France” were unable to take their shift in the early morning but “were out” at 8 a.m., a spokeswoman said.
On the RATP rail network (metro, RER, tramway), “traffic is normal”, specified the management. Also contacted, the SNCF declared that there was no “nothing major to report” regarding traffic conditions.
Coldest day of the week
On Tuesday, the cold worsens in the north-east of France as well as in the Massif Central, combining with the risk of flooding in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais. The day is expected to be the coldest of the week, with temperatures felt between −5°C and −10°C over a vast northeastern third. Forty-eight departments are on extreme cold yellow vigilance (second level out of four).
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It will be between − 7 °C and − 4 °C in Hauts-de-France, Grand-Est, Brittany, Auvergne and Limousin, and between − 5 °C and − 2 °C in the rest of the region. territory, anticipates the meteorological service. Only the Côte d’Azur and Corsica will record positive temperatures on Tuesday morning, with minimums between 3°C and 7°C and maximums of 8°C to 14°C, while snow will fall in small quantities. in Drôme, Isère, Ain and Jura.
Although temperatures dropped quickly after a particularly mild period, the current situation does not meet the criteria for a cold wave, defined in France as a lasting and extensive episode (at least three days) including at least one day where the average temperature (national thermal indicator) falls below − 2 °C.
Indeed, temperatures will rise slowly from Wednesday, but the minimums will remain low, with almost widespread and locally severe frosts, warns Météo-France; it could snow in Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon until Thursday.
If the cold level is forecast “ordinary” in the east of the country, Météo-France notes that “this will not necessarily be the case in the western regions, at least locally”. “From Normandy to Brittany, via Maine, the sequence of a few days without thaw has become rare”underlines the organization, adding: “In Alençon or Laval, if we stay below 0°C for three days as could happen, this would be unprecedented since February 2012.”
Pas-de-Calais and the North still on flood alert
The Nord and Pas-de-Calais were kept on orange alert for floods. In Blendecques (Pas-de-Calais), one of the municipalities severely affected by flooding last week, frost has frozen the mud in the streets. In Arques, there is no more water on the town hall square and some residents found themselves without heating, while Météo-France forecasts − 6°C on Wednesday.
Furthermore, the Minister for Housing, Patrice Vergriete, announced on Monday the release of 120 million euros for emergency accommodation, and specified that the Great Cold Plan had been launched “by all prefectures” concerned, in conjunction with Météo-France.
In Ile-de-France, the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS) expressed its concern about the sheltering of homeless people, citing a Great Cold Plan. “undersized compared to needs”. “While it was freezing, the marauders told us of numerous situations of isolated people or families who had to spend the night on the street due to lack of places to take shelter in sufficient numbersthe FAS was alarmed in a press release. It is imperative to open emergency accommodation places that meet the needs for all people on the streets throughout the Ile-de-France region. »