• France is facing its first heat episode of the summer, five departments are in orange heat wave vigilance.

  • This heat wave, especially in the south of France, will continue until Sunday.

  • Then the temperatures should drop again.

The heat and the sun are there.

“Finally”, one would be tempted to say, after a start to summer rather below normal for the season and above all very rainy.

20 Minutes

sought to know from Météo-France what is happening and if the summer was finally gone for good, in the middle of August.

What is this heat wave in France?

Since Wednesday and until Sunday France faces a heat wave. A heatwave even in the south of the country. So much so that since 4 p.m. this Thursday, five departments have been on an orange heatwave alert (Ardèche, Drôme, Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). Sixteen other departments, all in the South-East and on the Mediterranean rim, are on yellow alert. "Temperatures will still be around 21, 22 or 23 degrees in the area at the end of the night in the coming days," explains Frédéric Nathan, forecaster at Météo-France. However, it is these high temperatures at night that prevent the body from regenerating itself.

"The temperatures rose to more than 40 degrees yesterday in the Southeast, and it should remain very high until Sunday, when there will be a small drop already", announces the forecaster.

The hottest day?

Friday in the south-west and Saturday in the south-east of France.

The Provençal hinterland should be particularly affected.

However, this heat episode is not exceptional, especially compared to recent heat waves, as in 2019, for example.

“But because of global warming, these types of episodes are more and more frequent.

"

What is the cause of this heat wave?

For weeks, a hot air mass has been blocked over North Africa and the Mediterranean. "The anticyclone, which is over Sicily, has encouraged a rise in warm air mass further north", describes Frédéric Nathan. France is on the edge of this air mass. In recent days, moreover, the European temperature record has been broken in Sicily: the Syracuse resort observed a temperature of 48.8 degrees. A record consistent with those recorded in North Africa (in Tunis and Kairouan in particular) because of this same air mass.

Can we nevertheless speak of a heat dome, like what happened in Canada and the United States in early summer?

Frédéric Nathan does not like the term, not enough meteorological for his taste, but he notes that the same causes are at work.

"An anticyclone, including high pressures, is superimposed on a mass of hot air, so there is compression, like in a bicycle pump, which can further increase temperatures", explains the weather forecaster from Météo-France.

Will the heat last?

We understood that the heatwave in the south of France was going to end on Sunday, but after? Frédéric Nathan explains that the temperatures will drop: “A lot in the northern half and even fall below the seasonal averages, less in the southern half with temperatures around 27 degrees on average. The summer is not over, other episodes of heatwave cannot be ruled out, even if the forecaster believes it is too early to move forward.

Because France is an exception this summer in a Europe that suffocates.

Monthly records were broken in several countries in southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.

In these last two countries, we will see the consequences of this weather on fires.

France only escaped this heat thanks to the various “cold drops” which came to be placed precisely above her.

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