After the heat wave, France had its coolest day of the summer

2023-08-30 14:11:00

Last week, it had never been so hot in France after August 15th. This Tuesday, France had its coolest day of the summer.

By NJ with AFP As in the “Baie des Anges” in Nice, the clouds and the freshness returned to France on Tuesday August 29 (illustrative image). © VALERY HACHE / AFP Published on 08/30/2023 at 2:11 p.m.

The weather is doing the splits in France. If the country experienced, last week, its hottest day after August 15, France crossed, this Tuesday August 29, its coolest day with a national thermal indicator at 17.34 ° C, according to Météo -France, i.e. temperatures, on a national scale, settling at 2.56°C below normal for the season, over the period 1991-2020.

“It is indeed the coolest day of the meteorological summer of 2023, ahead of August 7 and August 28,” said Météo-France. This record is therefore established less than a week after the day during which the air temperature recorded in 30 weather stations representative of the territory was 27.8 ° C, a level never reached after August 15 since 1947.

Temperature drops of up to 24°C

This large difference is explained by a northwesterly flow combined with a disturbance that caused temperatures to drop in France, with sometimes impressive local differences. In some regions, the fall in mercury has sometimes exceeded 20 ° C in just a few days, especially in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, where the snow has returned above 2,500 meters. “The deviation from the seasonal averages went from + 8 to + 16°C last Thursday to – 12°C to – 4°C on Monday August 28”, underlines the national forecaster.

On Tuesday, a city like Lyon lost more than 19 degrees in the space of five days, dropping from 41.4°C on Thursday to 22.3°C. The difference was even greater in Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Savoie), dropping from 37.5°C to 13°C, while Lons-le-Saunier (Jura) saw its temperatures almost halved, from 39 °C to 19.8°C.

READ ALSOHow the human body copes with heat wavesSimilarly, Embrun (Hautes-Alpes), after experiencing an unprecedented series of sixteen consecutive days with a maximum above 32°C, found itself with a mercury of 14.4°C on Monday, i.e. its after- coolest August midday since the monthly record low of August 20, 1977.

In the Hautes-Alpes, the departmental thermal indicator was 23 degrees, an unprecedented value for all months combined, and it fell to 7 ° C on August 28.

“Since the existence of the departmental indicator in 1947, only three days in August have been cooler (in 1986, in 1963 and in 1948)”, underlines Météo-France.