Violent Storms Expected in France this Thursday: Nearly 40 Departments are on Orange Alert

With this new approaching storm wave, Météo-France is warning of dangerous phenomena this Thursday 27th August.

Lightning, gusts of wind and hailstones sweep across France this Thursday 27th August. Weather vigilance for storms is strengthening in the middle of the week: Météo-France, which had already placed 12 departments on orange alert for this Wednesday afternoon, extends this alert to dozens of departments for this Thursday.

Here are the areas affected:

Aisne
Allier
Ardennes
Aube
Aveyron
Calvados
Cantal
Corrèze
Creuse
Côte-d’Or
Essonne
Eure
Eure-et-Loir
Haute-Marne
Haute-Saône
Hauts-de-Seine
Loire
Lot
Maine-et-Loire
Marne
Mayenne
Nièvre
Nord
Oise
Orne
Paris
Pas-de-Calais
Puy-de-Dôme
Sarthe
Saône-et-Loire
Seine-Maritime
Seine-St-Denis
Seine-et-Marne
Somme
Val-D’Oise
Val-de-Marne
Vosges
Yonne
Yvelines

Furthermore, almost the rest of France is on yellow alert for various phenomena: storms, but also rain-floods. Here is the list:

Ain : wind, storms
Allier : rain-flood, floods
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence wind
Hautes-alpes wind
Ardèche wind
Ariège : wind, storms
Aveyron : rain-flood
Cantal : rain-flood
Charente thunderstorms
Charente-maritime thunderstorms
Cher thunderstorms
Corrèze : rain-flood
Côte-d’Or : rain-flood
Côtes d’Armor thunderstorms
Dordogne thunderstorms
Doubs thunderstorms
Drôme wind
Finistère thunderstorms
Haute-garonne : wind, storms
Gers thunderstorms
Gironde thunderstorms
Ille-et-Vilaine thunderstorms
Indre thunderstorms
Indre-et-loire thunderstorms
Isère wind
Jurathunderstorms
Landes thunderstorms
Loir-et-Cher thunderstorms
Haute-loire thunderstorms
Loire-atlantique thunderstorms
Loiret thunderstorms
Lot : rain-flood
Lot-et-Garonne thunderstorms
Lozère thunderstorms
Manche thunderstorms
Haute-marne : rain-flood
Meurthe-et-Moselle thunderstorms
Meuse thunderstorms
Morbihan thunderstorms
Moselle thunderstorms
Nièvre : rain-flood
Puy-de-dôme : rain-flood, floods
Pyrénées-atlantiques : wind, storms
Hautes-pyrénées : wind, storms
Bas-rhin thunderstorms
Haut-rhin thunderstorms
Rhône : wind, storms
Saône-et-loire : rain-flood
Savoie wind
Deux-sèvres thunderstorms
Tarn thunderstorms
Tarn-et-Garonne thunderstorms
Vendée thunderstorms
Vienne thunderstorms
Haute-vienne thunderstorms
Terr. of Belfort thunderstorms

While a risk of medium to large hail, with hailstones between 2 and 5 cm, was expected for this Wednesday, with heavy precipitation and thunderstorms, the situation is gradually deteriorating.

This Thursday, “the depression is slowly filling up as it progresses towards Ireland, but instability continues in the north of France”, specifies meteorologist Yann Amice.

Storm patterns across france — Forecasted storm patterns across France

The storms will shift towards the north and east

Thus, the sky will be variable with heavy weather: “instability reactivates at midday with the return of showers and new storms will be to be monitored in this scenario in the afternoon over the west of the Paris basin”, continues the specialist.

The meteorologist expects storms, sometimes violent, to arrive in the Paris region between 2 and 3 a.m. during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Their passage should be relatively rapid, with an evacuation towards the northeast around 6 to 7 hours.

Hailstones, strong gusts…

In all cases, Météo-France anticipates a risk of medium to large hail, including between 2 cm and 5 cm, but also heavy rain, with hourly accumulations of up to 30 mm, and strong wind gusts of up to 80 km/h to 100 km/h, locally more, as well as intense electrical activity.

The instability will not disappear immediately on Thursday 27th August. It must continue in the north of France, with a possible reactivation of showers and thunderstorms from midday, particularly in the west of the Paris basin. The following night, stormy activity should reposition itself more in the east of the country, towards the Alps.