Weather: a particularly mild Christmas weekend for the French

Europe 1 with AFP 4:12 p.m., December 26, 2022

France had a particularly mild Christmas on Sunday, well above seasonal norms and the second hottest since the post-war period, Météo France announced on Monday.

On December 25, 2022, the national thermal indicator (an average of 30 stations spread over the metropolitan territory) stood at 11.3°C, according to the public establishment.

"It's quite simply the second sweetest Christmas since the start of the indicator in 1947," François Gourand, meteorologist at Météo France, told AFP.

The mildest Christmas recorded to date is still that of 1997 with 11.7°.

"11.3° is an anomaly of 5.5° above normal on a national scale, it is considerable, which means that in detail there have been values ​​close to 10 ° above normal or even a little more locally yesterday", he underlined.

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"On a new level of sweetness"

A record could even be beaten if we take the average of December 24 and 25, estimates the meteorologist: "I think that on the average of the two days we are on an unprecedented level of mildness for this time of year".

This mildness is explained by a flow bringing mild air masses to the country.

"These weather patterns are not exceptional in themselves, but now the air masses coming up from the south tend to always be a little warmer," notes François Gourand.

Météo France had indicated in early December that 2022 would be the hottest year ever recorded in France since the start of measurements in 1900, regardless of the temperatures in December, a symptom of global warming.

The establishment also warned that the proverb “Christmas on the balcony, Easter on the ember” had no climatological basis.

"There is no direct link between the weather at Christmas and Easter, the date of which varies each year!", underlined Météo France.