Days under 35 to 39 ° C and stifling nights: a new episode of heat wave should affect the south of France on Monday 1is August before heading north on Tuesday and Wednesday. Five departments have been placed under orange vigilance in the south of France: Ardèche (07), Drôme (26), Gard (30), Pyrénées-Orientales (66) and Vaucluse (84). These territories should cross a “new heatwave episode whose intensity and duration will be less than those of the previous episode”, said Météo-France, Sunday, in a bulletin. The ten other departments in the south-eastern quarter of France have been placed on yellow alert.
The heat should be felt from Monday morning in the South, with, in the afternoon, temperatures of 35 to 38 ° C in the departments placed in orange vigilance, and peaks at 39 ° C in the Gard department. .
The period of high heat should “to extend Tuesday and Wednesday to many regions”, to the west and in the Rhône valley, warns Météo-France. Across France, the heat peak is expected for Wednesday with maximums often greater than or equal to 35 ° C and peaks at 39-40 ° C in the Southwest. This peak, however, should be “short in many departments”according to Steven Testelin, forecaster at Météo-France, and cooler air could arrive Thursday from the northwest.
The #FortesChaleurs are back tomorrow. Temperatures climb first in the Southeast on Monday before gaining… https://t.co/A49eKwMU0P
Météo France recommends watching over the elderly, people with chronic illnesses or mental health disorders, people who regularly take medication, and isolated people. Dehydration or heatstroke (fever, hot, red and dry skin, headaches, nausea) can also affect athletes and people who work outdoors.
Fire in the Gard
A few days after an exceptional heat wave that lasted two weeks, temperatures were again high on Sunday afternoon from Roussillon to Provence.
In Marseille, Montpellier and Perpignan, 36 ° C were recorded on Sunday at 4 p.m., and the temperature reached 38 ° C in Nîmes. In the Gard (30), fanned by the Mistral and the Tramuntana, a fire destroyed 200 hectares of pine forest on Sunday evening, and four firefighters were injured, one of them seriously. The Gard had been placed on Saturday, for the first time this season, in level “extreme danger” in the Gard Rhône area. Another fire broke out at the end of the afternoon about twenty kilometers from Marseille, in the vicinity of Pennes-Mirabeau.
This multiplication of episodes of high heat is a direct consequence of global warming, according to scientists, greenhouse gas emissions (linked to energy production, transport, industry) increasing both their intensity, duration and frequency.
Historic drought
The Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region experienced its hottest month of July since 1947. In France, July 2006 remained warmer. France, on the other hand, had its driest month of July since the beginning of the measurements, in August 1958, confirmed Météo-France.
Western Europe faced a historic drought in July and two heat waves in barely a month, during which devastating forest fires broke out, such as in Gironde and Greece.
The Gironde prefecture has announced that the department will once again be placed on red alert for the risk of fire, prohibiting the movement of people and vehicles in the forest between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Access to the forests is also strictly prohibited in the Vaucluse, and in 4 of the 25 massifs of the Bouches-du-Rhône.
In the Jura, new water restrictions apply on Monday. The watering of lawns and any green space is prohibited, as is the filling of private swimming pools, or the washing of vehicles.