Météo-France has placed twelve departments in orange vigilance this Friday morning. In the Pyrenees, the Landes and the Gers have been placed in orange vigilance for floods, Andorra and the Pyrénées-Orientales for avalanche risks, Ariège and Haute-Garonne for avalanche and rain-flooding, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Hautes-Pyrénées for avalanches, rain-floods and floods. In the Alps, Ain has been placed on orange vigilance for snow-ice, Isère for avalanche risk, Haute-Savoie and Savoie for avalanches and snow-ice.
The precipitation will continue around the Pyrenees rim until Saturday morning. “The intensities will be moderate, sometimes quite strong next night and Friday morning,” according to the Météo-France press release. The rains will intensify during the night in the south of the departments in vigilance orange rain flooding. The rains will accumulate significantly and the snow will fall around 2,000 m during the day on Friday and will drop to around 1,200 m in the evening.
Wind, an aggravating factor
The disturbance will also be accompanied by a clear warmth in the mountains where the rain / snow limit will rise to 2,200 / 2,300 m next night. It will drop to around 1,500 m at the end of the night or early morning tomorrow and then to around 1,200 m afterwards.
According to Météo-France, the wind is also an aggravating factor since it becomes strong during the night and tomorrow in the mountains, more temporarily in the plains and along the chain. Northwest gusts can reach 60 to 90 km / h in the plains, up to 100/110 km / h on the coast and 120/130 km / h in the mountains.
These conditions induce a very high risk of avalanche, notes Meteo France which also expects a long north-westerly swell on the Basque coast during the episode which could thwart the flow in the estuaries.