• A weather map, very viral on Facebook and viewed 13.8 million times, shows negative temperatures with extremes of up to -25°C.

    It would give the temperatures recorded in France in January 1985.

  • The map, which already circulated in January 2020 on Facebook associated with the date of January 16, 1985, is not from Météo-France, but it remains close to the averages recorded.

    Because the month of January 1985 was particularly cold in France.

  • A cold wave hit the country and lasted sixteen days from January 3 to 18 inclusive, specifies Météo-France.

    "There are 15 cold waves after this date, the last of which took place at the end of February 2018, against 37 heat waves from 1989 to 2022 inclusive", underlines the meteorological service.

It throws a chill.

A weather map, very viral on Facebook and viewed 13.8 million times, shows negative temperatures with extremes of up to -25°C.

It would give the temperatures recorded in France in January 1985. The source of these assertions is not known.

In the many comments, Internet users compare these temperatures to the current cold, which seems very little, evoke their memories of harsh winters and make fun of the media who speak of cold snaps, from -1°C.

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This map, which already circulated in January 2020 on Facebook associated with the date of January 16, 1985, is not from Météo-France, but it remains close to the averages recorded.

Because the month of January 1985 was particularly cold in France.

A cold wave hit the country and lasted sixteen days from January 3 to 18, with two peaks on January 8 and 16, specifies Météo-France.

That month, the lowest value recorded on the main network of measuring stations was -28.5°C at Peyrelevade (Corrèze) on January 9, 1985.



"There are 15 cold waves after this date, the last of which took place at the end of February 2018, against 37 heat waves from 1989 to 2022 inclusive", underlines the official service of meteorology and climatology in France.

Due to global warming, winters are becoming milder and very low temperatures are disappearing, even in the northeast of the country, details Météo-France.

Just as snow disappears in the plains or in the mountains, especially at medium altitudes.

Second coldest day on record

January 16, 1985 was even the second coldest day ever recorded in France since 1947, with an average temperature across the country of -9.9°C.

“To obtain this national average, the cold must be generalized, but that does not mean that it was January 16, 1985 when we experienced the lowest temperature in such and such a city”, continues Météo-France .

The calculation of this national thermal indicator is based on readings from 30 stations across France.

An average temperature is calculated over the day from these data.

“This allows us to classify the coldest or hottest days since 1947 on the scale of France”, completes the meteorology service.

In the ranking of the ten coldest days, we also find January 8, 1985 in third position and January 15, 1985, in sixth position.

Incorrect data

The data shown on the virus map does not match that of January 16, 1985, but is quite close.

Thus, Météo-France indicates that at the Paris-Montsouris station, the average temperature recorded that day was - 12.8 ° C (against - 13.9 ° C on the map).

In Brittany, in Rennes, the average temperature is - 11.7 ° C, according to data from Météo-France, while the viral map indicates - 15 ° C.


📊 Despite these very low values ​​of mini T°C, this day of January 23, 1963 is not at all among the coldest days, on the winter weather, on the scale of France.



We find in 2nd position the day of January 16, 1985 behind February 2, 1956. pic.twitter.com/TK4jFk8q8H

— Meteo-France (@meteofrance) January 23, 2023

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In comparison, on January 20, 2023, the average temperature across France was 2.3°C, on January 21 1.7°C and on January 22 0.6°C.

And if it's cold, it's not necessarily a cold snap, because the criteria are not met, explained Météo-France in a thread on Twitter.

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