Paris (AFP)
Thirteen departments of eastern France, from the Loire to Alsace, were placed in orange vigil Sunday night by Météo-France because of an episode of "violent" storms accompanied by hail and wind gusts that did not cause much damage.
In its latest bulletin published at 22H00, the forecasting service has added the Haute-Loire to the 12 departments already placed on alert (Ain, Côte-d'Or, Doubs, Jura, Loire, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, the Rhone, the Haute-Saone, the Saone-et-Loire, the Vosges and the Territoire de Belfort) until Monday at 06:00.
"Thunderstorms are now well developed, especially on the Loire, the Rhone and Ain where many storm cells have already been observed.These thunderstorms are accompanied by heavy rainfall, many impacts of lightning and frequent hail" , says Météo-France.
Hail and wind caused damage locally early in the evening, not serious, according to firefighters in the various departments involved.
In the Rhône, more than 80 weather-related interventions were recorded around 9.30 pm, mainly for damaged roofs, with local flooding. Beaujolais, in the north of the department, was the most affected. Motorists were also confronted with a deluge of rain at the end of the day at the toll of the A6 motorway in Villefranche-sur-Saone.
In Burgundy, relief reported about twenty interventions related to the weather around 21H00 but "nothing too bad" according to them compared to recent storms that caused more damage.
In the east of the country, in the early evening, the firefighters had intervened about fifteen times in two communes of the Territoire de Belfort (Vétrigne and Offemont) "mainly for velux bursts by the hail" and trees fallen on lines electric.
© 2019 AFP