Anthony Kaczmarek, with AFP 7:59 p.m., August 12, 2022

These Saturdays and Sundays will be marked by two orange vigilances triggered by Météo France: that against the heat wave, which still concerns 19 departments mainly in the south-west of the country, and the second against thunderstorms in the two departments of Corsica.

Temperatures are expected to drop on Sunday.

Another scorching Saturday, before a drop in temperatures.

As the Assumption weekend begins, Météo France has placed a total of 21 departments on orange alert.

The first vigilance relates to the heat wave, and still applies to the 19 departments concerned since Thursday.

The second vigilance concerns thunderstorms in the two departments of Corsica.

These will take place overnight from Friday to Saturday, and will be locally violent, especially in the west of the Isle of Beauty, between Calvi and Propriano.

Météo France calls for caution in strong winds and the risk of hail.

A night from Saturday to Sunday still suffocating

Everywhere else, on Saturday, the French will wake up under the sun, except very locally towards the beaches of the Mediterranean and in Aquitaine with some low clouds which will dissipate quickly.

In the afternoon, the sun will continue to shine.

There will always be a north-easterly wind in the northern half, and a little southerly wind also in the Rhone valley with up to 50 km/h gusts.

In the evening, other storms will arrive from the Pyrenees and will go up towards New Aquitaine and Occitanie.

It is these storms that will bring down the temperatures, even if the night will still be stifling.

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On the mercury side, we will often be between 16 and 22 degrees.

It will be 13 to 18 degrees in the northeast, 15 to 20 elsewhere on the northern half.

The maximum will be between 30 and 35 degrees on the northeast quarter, on the Mediterranean rim and on the Atlantic coast where the heat will begin to subside, with even 25 to 29 degrees on the Aquitaine coasts.

We are still expecting 36 to locally 39 degrees in the interior of the Loire Valley, New Aquitaine and Occitanie.

End of the heat wave scheduled for this Sunday

The third heat wave of the summer of 2022 should end on Sunday with thunderstorms over most of France, accompanied by localized heavy rainfall, insufficient however to remedy the historic drought, according to forecasts from Météo France.

The storms, which will come up from the Southwest from Saturday evening, are expected to be strongest around the central massif and the Rhône valley, "and could give accumulations of precipitation up to 30 to 50 mm in places" , note Météo-France.

The strong accumulations "will fall on very dry soil, with fairly significant risks of runoff" which do not allow water to be absorbed and increase the risk of flooding "and the risk of hailstones", warned Claire Chanal. , forecaster, during a press briefing on Friday evening.

In addition, "thunderstorms give very heterogeneous" and localized accumulations of precipitation, insufficient to compensate for a "drought which affects the whole territory", she added.

France should lose 5 to 10 degrees in temperature this Sunday.