Today well anchored in the minds and the daily life of the French, the weather vigilances are however recent.

It was only in October 2001 that they were born, two years after the great storm of December 1999. And despite the controversy, Météo France is still trying to improve its system.

DECRYPTION

Weather vigilance is such a part of the daily life of the French that one could have the impression that they have always existed.

Tuesday morning again, five departments are on orange alert, two for snow and ice (Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal), and three for floods (Landes, Lot-et-Garonne and Gers).

However, their creation is recent.

It dates exactly from October 2001.

The turn of the "Storm of the Century" in 1999

The idea of ​​better alerting the French was born at Météo France after the impressive storm which swept through France at the end of December 1999. This "storm of the century" had highlighted a cruel lack of information, since 'she surprised everyone.

And clearly, there is a before and an after in the desire to make public information a priority at Météo France.

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In October 2001, this led to the creation of the famous weather vigilance maps.

The general public discovers the alert levels department by department - green, yellow, orange and red - for all types of extreme weather events: wind, storm, flooding, snow, heatwave and extreme cold.

Red vigilance was used for the first time in September 2002 during severe floods in the Gard.

"Red vigilance means staying at home", explained in November 2008 Laurent Cabrol, the Meteorologist of Europe 1. "So do not move, especially do not move, avoid any movement. And if you must move. , it is necessary to scrupulously respect all the signs put in place on this occasion. "

In total, the red vigilance has been triggered forty times in just under 20 years. 

Each red alert has its controversy

Except that this alert system regularly provokes controversy.

An orange alert which should have been red, a red alert which arrives too late or which is raised too early… Each vigilance has its own controversy, as for example when heavy snowfall paralyzed Ile-de-France in December 2010 Thousands of people spend the night in their cars, stranded on the roads.

"Météo France did not foresee this snowy episode, at least not its intensity. The forecast was 3 centimeters and it fell 12 centimeters on Paris itself and 20 centimeters on certain regions of the suburbs", François pointed out. Fillon, then Prime Minister.

"There is no doubt that the services responsible for snow removal were caught off guard."

"Obviously that is not true, I am shocked, it is without comment", had choked a few minutes later Valérie Darmon, weather specialist, on Europe 1. "All the weather forecasters made a follow-up of the snowy episode from the start, so obviously it was announced ".

Soon the "cell broadcast" for mobile phones

Even today, we are thinking about ways to better disseminate weather alerts.

On September 24, the government thus announced the establishment of a "Cell broadcast", or "cellular broadcast" in good French.

These are priority mini-messages that you will soon receive on your mobile phone if you are in an area affected by a danger, including when the network is full.

A revolution, according to Gérald Darmanin.

"In the 20th century, we went from the tocsin to the siren, and in the 21st century we will go from the siren to the cell phone," said the Minister of the Interior, presenting the device, responsible for answering several questions: " Is it a fire, is it a flood? Is it toxic fumes? And what to do? Do we have to stay at home, do we have to leave our house? "

Cell broadcasting already exists in other countries, especially for tornadoes in the United States.

And France is late.

A European directive obliges states to implement this system by 2022.