The winters follow one another and are similar in France.

Rain almost everywhere and often spring-like temperatures before their time: after a particularly mild autumn, the winter of 2023-2024 is the third warmest ever measured in France and ends with an excessively mild month of February, again sign of global warming.

Between the beginning of December and the end of February, traditionally the coldest period of the year, the mercury should exceed "by about two degrees" the normals for the period 1991-2020, behind the winters of 2020 (+2.3°C) and 2016 (+2.1°C), Météo-France announced on Thursday.

For the sixth year in a row, the temperatures of the three winter months are at least 0.8°C warmer than the averages of the last three decades for these months.

We have to go back to the winter of 2017-2018 (+0.1°C) to find temperatures close to seasonal norms, Météo-France said.

With a thermal anomaly of +3.6°C, February 2024 is the second hottest February in history, after 1990 (+4°C compared to 1991-2020 averages).

It is also the 25th month in a row not to fall below normal, another sign that these standards are increasing under the effect of global warming.

Shorter winters

These observations are all the more notable since in meteorology the normals are calculated from the temperatures of the previous three decades, themselves already warmer than the climate of the pre-industrial era.

In France, the average temperature is considered to already be at least 1.7°C above what it was before humanity's massive emissions of greenhouse gases affected the climate.

On a global scale too, the thermometer continues to break records: January was the eighth month in a row to be the hottest ever recorded in the world, according to the European Copernicus observatory.

For Météo-France, this “rise in temperatures, a consequence of climate change, leads to a shortening of the winter season”.

“Our winters are less cold than before, lasting frosts and snow in the plains are becoming increasingly rare,” underlines the weather forecasting organization in a press release.

Emblematic sign: since the beginning of December, only the period from January 7 to 20 has been characterized by a truly winter episode, which paradoxically surprised everyone a little after a fairly mild start to winter.

Freezing temperatures had affected the north of France (-14.7°C recorded in Arras for example) and the snow, which had fallen on the plains, had seriously disrupted traffic in several places.

But since January 23, the thermometer has started to rise again.

Peaks of mildness were reached with average temperatures more than 6°C above normal.

The 25°C mark (heat threshold) was crossed on Thursday January 25, in the Pyrénées-Orientales and in Hérault.

According to the Weather Channel, never since 1930 has the first half of February been so hot.

This mild streak continued until February 22.

The winter of 2023-24 was the warmest ever recorded in Alsace since 1947 and it is tied with the winter of 2020 in Corsica, indicates Météo-France

Excess rain

Despite everything, in certain parts of the country, particularly in the north, the impression of a “rotten winter” dominates many minds.

The fault is a marked lack of sunshine and sequences of marked and persistent rain in certain regions.

Pas-de-Calais was hit by several major floods, and the PACA region also experienced two episodes of intense rainfall in February.

Over the entire winter, France recorded an excess of rain of around 10% on average.

Relatively good news for groundwater, whose situation nevertheless remains precarious, after long months of almost uninterrupted drought.

In certain regions, it even remains dramatic.

Thus, Corsica, the Eastern Pyrenees and the entire Languedoc-Roussillon region, which are recording their third winter with a significant deficit in terms of precipitation, have hardly seen a drop of rain fall this winter.

Conversely, the excess rain exceeds 20% in Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France.

In Dunkirk and Nice, it is even higher than 50%.

On the sunny side, the central-western regions in the Paris basin and the Ardennes look gloomy.

The sunshine deficit there has reached 10% to 30%.

Snowflakes were almost absent in low and medium mountains (Vosges, Jura, Massif central, Corsica and Pyrenees).

With AFP

The France 24 summary of the week

invites you to look back at the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application