No, no you are not dreaming: three days ago, France shifted into autumn with the equinox. The calendar for the year 2023 is running out, but temperatures remain high, especially this week, when we will switch to October on Sunday. Why such a late heat episode? Will the good weather continue? Are we reaching records for the season? 20 minutes deciphers this sweet start to autumn 2023.
How can we explain this episode of autumn heat?
Quite simply by the presence of an anticyclone which settles over “central Europe, guaranteeing good weather for everyone”, unfolds The Weather Channel. Temperatures are above seasonal norms, despite “some weaknesses to the northwest” of the anticyclone, which will allow some clouds to pass through.
Still according to La Chaîne Météo, a southwesterly flow brings the heat from West Africa back to France. In the middle of summer, such an episode would have created a stifling heat wave, specialists point out.
Are the temperatures that await us record highs for the season?
If the minimum temperatures are chilly, the weather map turns red once the afternoon arrives. This Tuesday, it will be over 25 degrees everywhere in France, with the exception of the north and Brittany. According to a Météo-France forecaster questioned by France Blue, temperatures in some will be “nine, ten or even 11 degrees above seasonal averages”. However, Météo-France does not expect heat records, after a summer marked by the heatwave and an inflation of temperatures at the beginning of the month, which have already broken the ceilings.
But Sunday, October 1 could shake up everything. It is expected to be particularly hot in the south of the country, with temperatures expected to be +6 degrees above seasonal norms, with maximums around 30 degrees in two thirds of the country.
Strongest heatwave measured after August 15, second hottest month of June: with 21.8 degrees average temperature, the summer of 2023 was the fourth hottest ever measured in France, as recalled The Parisian. Already in 2022, after records in summer, October was the hottest since 1900, with an average temperature of 17.2 degrees, more than 3 degrees above normal.
After this week, will the sweetness continue?
Over the next three months, temperatures should remain above seasonal averages with almost an additional degree, according to La Chaîne Météo. The first trends even suggest the hypothesis of a fairly mild and dry summer, which would make it difficult to recharge the level of the water tables, already very low, before the month of December.
Without looking that far ahead, temperatures next week should also be high with “rare precipitation” due to the presence of the anticyclone.