At the end of an intense episode of heat wave, storms hit France. This Thursday, 22 departments are on orange alert.
Storms continue across the country. While 30 departments were placed in orange alert by Meteo France, this Thursday 9th August, 2018.
🔶 22 dpts en #vigilanceOrange
Restez informés sur https://t.co/rJ24zzmmy4 pic.twitter.com/lpYxoVqKeb
— VigiMétéoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) 9 August 2018
Since Wednesday at the end of the day, storms have erupted over the Pyrenean departments to touch the entire region during the night, before climbing towards the Limousin, said Meteo France.
“In a second time, they will win the whole of Auvergne Thursday morning,” according to the bulletin.
“These storms can be accompanied by heavy rain, hail and gusts up to 80 km/h”
More thunderstorms are expected Thursday morning on the Cevennes, in the Gard, the Rhone Valley and the Drôme, with the risk of very violent rains locally.
No more heat wave
No more departments in France are in orange alert because of the heat wave. On the other hand, the extreme south of Corsica will be in orange fire vigil Thursday from 11am.
Thunderstorms in Normandy blocked 1,500 people Tuesday night at train stations in Lisieux, Caen and Evreux, where trains remained docked due to falling trees on the tracks, said the SNCF. Catenaries were damaged, causing power faults.
After this complicated night for travellers, arrived around 2:30 in the capital, traffic had returned to normal Wednesday at midday on the axis Paris-Caen-Cherbourg, according to a spokesman for the SNCF.
“Balance rather reassuring”
In Burgundy , fires hit homes and farms after lightning strikes, without causing any casualties.
In Moselle , firefighters intervened 131 times for floods or falling branches and trees. In the Meuse, ten customers of a camp-site in Saint-Mihiel were rehoused after a hailstorm.
Since Wednesday at the end of the day, storms have erupted over the Pyrenean departments to touch the entire region during the night, before climbing towards the Limousin, said Météo-France. the alert was raised in several of them. At midday, only 22 were still concerned.
The thunderstorms of Tuesday evening were also accompanied by significant cumulative rainfall. In Falaise (Calvados) , Météo-France raised 24.5 mm of water in three hours. The gusts also exceeded 100 km / h in the Somme and the Pas-de-Calais in particular, with notably 108 km / h in Cambrai-Épinoy, in the North.
These storms caused a welcome refreshment after this long heat wave, but not comparable to the particularly deadly 2003, which caused an estimated 15,000 excess deaths.
“The assessment to date is rather reassuring even though we are still vigilant about the impact on the elderly, which may be a little off schedule,” said Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, ubiquitous in the field since the beginning of this hot episode, at a press conference on Wednesday.
Excess mortality figures will be available in September.
Pollution alert lifted
After several days of persistent ozone pollution in Île-de-France, in the East, the Rhone Valley and the Alps, caused in particular by road transport in the context of heavy heat, the alert was lifted. Alternating traffic, which forbids the most polluting vehicles to drive, set up at the beginning of the week in Ile-de-France, was not renewed.
Beyond health issues, the impact of heatwave and drought is felt in the economy and agriculture. On Wednesday, 46 departments were affectedby water restrictions ranging from the alert threshold to the crisis threshold, which results in reductions or stops of water withdrawal for agriculture, to water green spaces or even wash cars.
