Weather: Hérault placed on orange alert for wave-submersion Tuesday morning

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: Idriss Bigou-Gilles / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 6:40 p.m., March 25, 2024

The department of Hérault will be placed on orange vigilance for waves-submersion Tuesday morning due to increased winds and high sea levels in the Mediterranean that could cause wave "breaks" in exposed areas, Météo announced on Monday. France. The orange level is the third on a scale of four and calls on the public to be "very vigilant", due to "expected dangerous phenomena".

1 department in Orange (https://t.co/CSYEovTI83) pic.twitter.com/b0Vb7YR1a5

— VigiMétéoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) March 25, 2024

Need to take calls for vigilance seriously

The authorities have again recently insisted on the need to take calls for vigilance seriously, after the violent bad weather which caused the death of eight people in the south-east of France at the beginning of March, generally swept away by the waters with their car as they attempted to cross swollen rivers on submersible bridges. The Hérault prefecture and Météo France will take stock Monday morning on the upcoming situation and the measures to be considered, according to the prefecture.

"The east to southeast winds strengthen at the end of the night from Monday to Tuesday over the north of the Gulf of Lion. They generate strong waves from the east to the southeast reaching the Languedoc coast at the end of the night In addition, the atmospheric conditions are causing a significant rise in sea level (surge),” Météo France wrote in its vigilance bulletin on Monday.

"The department of Hérault, located in the axis of the vein of strong winds, is more particularly concerned. The breaking of these strong waves, associated with these high sea levels, risks causing submersion by crossing packets of sea ​​on exposed areas of the coast", underlines the meteorological institute.

24 departments on yellow alert

This Monday, ten metropolitan departments are placed on yellow alert: five for wind (Aveyron, Haute-Garonne, Loire, Haute-Loire and Tarn), four for risks linked to floods (Aisne, Oise, Pas-de-Calais and Somme) and one for avalanches (Haute-Savoie).

Tuesday, in addition to Hérault, which will therefore be on orange vigilance for waves-submersion, 24 departments will be on yellow vigilance, some for several parameters: nine for wind (Aveyron, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Hérault, Loire, Haute-Loire, Tarn, Var), four for floods (Aisne, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Somme), four for rain-floods (Ardèche, Gard, Hérault, Lozère), four for waves-submersion (Aude , Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Pyrénées-Orientales) and nine for avalanches (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Haute-Garonne, Isère, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Savoie, Haute-Savoie).