Should we expect a multiplication of episodes similar to that experienced by the Gard, affected by impressive and sudden floods, on Saturday?
"It's a fundamental trend", analysis on Europe 1 Olivier Proust, forecaster at Météo France.
"We are on a range of 400 to 550 mm of water," said Olivier Proust, forecaster at Météo France, the day after the violent precipitation that hit the Gard, causing sudden floods and significant damage.
“Impressive” values, according to the specialist, who warns of the possible increase in these episodes in the years to come.
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"An exceptional day in intensity"
"We have a meteorological situation with, in the lower layers, currents which circulate on the Mediterranean and which strike the relief of the south of the Massif Central, therefore the Cévennes", decrypts Olivier Proust.
"And above that, we have cold altitude air which will circulate from Spain, so a machine with very violent storms. This is what was set up in the morning (Saturday,
editor's note
) and we therefore had an exceptional day in intensity throughout the episode. "
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"It happens to have such values," tempers the forecaster.
"But the values were reached in a very short time. So the implication is necessarily a reaction of the rivers."
In Anduze, the water rose to a height of seven meters on Saturday.
"It's consistent with climate projections"
Are the inhabitants of these regions right to worry about the future?
"It's a fundamental trend," replies Olivier Proust.
"We can see it by studying the past climates over the last fifty years, where we are witnessing an increase in possible accumulations under these violent episodes," he says first.
"And then, it's consistent with climate projections. In the context of global warming, we will more often have intense phenomena."