After a rainy and stormy extended weekend, the sun returns to Nice and the Côte d’Azur this week. Yes, but not for so long: the point with Meteo France
You shouldn’t have come to the Côte d’Azur this Ascension weekend to look for the sun, to say the least. In Nice ( Alpes-Maritimes ) and at the Cannes Film Festival, it was raining, with a few thunderclaps.
But since this Monday 22nd May 2023, the sun seems to be resurfacing. We take stock of the weather forecast for the week and the impact of the drought .
Return of the sun, but…
Meteo France announces the return of the sun this week over the whole of the Alpes-Maritimes, with however a few clouds and drops of rain in the Mercantour. Rare showers will continue to fall in the afternoon over the entire hinterland and the middle country, while the coast will be spared.
This is the weather that seems to be taking shape for the week: instability in the land and clearings along the sea.
These showers will be punctuated by lightning Tuesday afternoon and Friday all day. At the end of the week, the coast should not be spared by this precipitation.
Light rain on the coast but better inland
It rained 24.3 mm this May for five days, according to the airport weather station. Sunday, May 21, a small storm sprinkled Nice for an equivalent of 0.2 mm of rain. This brings to 87.3 mm the height of precipitation observed in 2023.
The normal for the month of May is estimated at 40 mm, according to Pierre-Louis Quibel, the consulting meteorologist at Meteo-France Sud-Est
Inland, it rained more frequently. As in Ilonse: 64.3 mm since the beginning of May. At Gilette: 85.2 mm. That is to say the highest values since the beginning of the year over a month at these stations.
A drought already present
However, these rains may not be enough to avoid drought this summer. The alert stage was triggered in March in the Alpes-Maritimes (and even a heightened alert on the Cagne, Esteron and Paillon watersheds as well as in Carros, Gattières and Tourrettes-sur -Wolf). The prefectural decree, renewed on April 25, is valid until October 31st.
In addition, the groundwater recharge season is from September to March only. Meteo-France does not indicate a preferred scenario for the precipitation to come in June, July and August (there are as many chances that it will be wetter than drier over the whole of France).
