After the heat dome of May, here is the “early heat wave” of mid-June. Unless you live in the South-East, where it has already been very hot since this weekend, take a deep breath, the air will also become unbreathable this Tuesday in the South-West with a first “hot pulse”.
Then, in a “second salvo”, the phenomenon will reach the Center then the North, and therefore Paris from Thursday, with two days expected to be hot on Friday and Saturday. Meteo France does not yet use the term heat wave pending daytime temperatures. Almost the entire southern half, even the center of France, will experience peaks of more than 35°C. The mercury could even rise to 40°C “inside Languedoc”.
What’s fault ?
This hot flash has its source in “a depression which is at altitude off the coast of Portugal and which favors a rise of hot air from the Maghreb. It has been transiting through Spain for several days and will reach France by the South-West”, summarizes Frédéric Long, forecaster at Météo-France. As a result, the temperature could rise this Tuesday “to 36 ° C in Bordeaux and 35 ° C in the Toulouse Midi”.
Something “never seen” in the Pyrenees
“It’s incredible, I’ve never seen that so early in the year in the Pyrenees. Christophe Dedieu, the president of the association of enlightened amateurs Météo Pyrénées, needs to pinch himself while watching the satellite maps scroll by. “An oven, that’s the case to say,” he predicts. The Pau thinks “that we will reach records for mid-June, in the free atmosphere in particular, around 1,500 meters since there will be peaks at 30°C. These are roughly the values that we find in the very center of the Sahara”. So for those who are still proud of seeing the still snow-capped peaks, enjoy. “With 25°C at 2,000 meters, the snow cover will finish spinning,” assures Christophe Dedieu. With “a little dust from the Sahara” to complete the show.
At the Gavarnie station, located at 1,400 meters above sea level, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, forecasters confirm a probable peak of 30°C on Tuesday.
Is it exceptional so early in the year?
If the phenomenon has the expected national magnitude, “as is likely” then, yes, this heat wave will be the earliest ever recorded after a month of May which has already been the hottest ever observed: “We have already had early heat waves in June, but only at the regional level, details Frédéric Long. Around mid-June 2003, just before the famous heat wave, there were heat waves in Alsace and Aquitaine. In June 2019, we also had a heat wave in the south of the country, but later, around June 25. On this national scale, therefore, it will be unprecedented.
Beyond the usual precautions for vulnerable people, this episode falls badly for agriculture, after a winter and a spring with little rain and when 35 departments are already on drought alert. It is also a bad omen regarding the risk of forest fires.