MSummer France extended its orange snow and ice alert on Friday morning to 22 departments, North and Normandy, Massif Central, Pyrenees and Alps, citing a “significant snowy episode”.
The weather forecasting organization had already placed 11 departments in orange vigilance as of Thursday.
The alert, which runs until at least Saturday morning, concerns the departments of Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Somme, Calvados, Seine-Maritime, Eure and Orne, Creuse, Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Loire, Ain, Isère, Allier, Cantal, Aveyron, Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, Ariège, Haute-Garonne , Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
The snowy episode is described by Météo-France as “unusual for the start of spring, sufficiently notable to disrupt traffic and certain economic activities”.
The snowfall has “reached Haute-Normandie and the Hauts-de-France department”, where the improvement will be gradual from east to west from the end of the morning. It “already snows all over the Massif Central”, also notes Météo France in its morning bulletin on Friday.
In the Alps, the snow ends up replacing the rain Friday morning above 500m. A few centimeters in the plain are expected in Ain and Isère, and up to 20 cm in Chartreuse and Vercors, according to Météo-France.
In the Massif Central, the snowfall weakened during the morning, then strengthened on Friday evening and persisted on Saturday.
In the Pyrenees, “we expect 2 to 5 cm around 400/500m, 7 to 15 cm locally 20/25cm around 800/1000m and 15/30cm locally 50cm around 1,500/1,800m”, notes Météo France.
In Pas-de-Calais, the prefecture has decided to suspend school transport on Friday between midnight and 2 p.m. The circulation of vehicles of more than 7.5 tons will also be prohibited on all the roads of the department, except the motorways.
The Hauts-de-France region has suspended school and intercity bus transport which it organizes in the territories of Pas-de-Calais and Somme and part of the North.
01/04/2022 07:41:20 – Paris (AFP) – © 2022 AFP