This is not an April Fool. We’ll have to put away the tap shoes and sunglasses that have been out in recent days and opt for some becoming après-ski from Friday. A really very cold air mass coming from the Arctic will indeed hit France in the coming days and the drop in temperatures promises to be dizzying.
This episode should result in snowfall, especially in the plain, from north to south of the territory according to calculations by Météo-France. Snow showers arriving from the Channel coast, associated with winds of 70 to 80 km/h are expected from Hauts-de-France to the Massif Central via Île-de-France and the Center region in the second part of the night from Thursday to Friday.
“The grip on the ground should be hindered by high surface temperatures. We expect 5 to 10 cm in Hauts-de-France, 2 to 5 cm in the Center region and up to 5 cm in the Paris region, ”says Véronique Ducrocq, director of operations for forecasting at Météo-France.
If the Ile-de-France residents will be able to make snowballs, in the intramural Capital it will certainly not be possible to put their skis back on in Montmartre as some had been able to do in 2018.
Snowy precipitation which will then affect the South-West, in particular the Pyrenean foothills where flakes are expected from 200 to 300 meters above sea level, with a high risk of avalanche on Saturday. These forecasts should be refined this Thursday, in particular on the risks of frost this weekend and the measures to be taken to avoid what some experienced last year, in particular at the level of arborists who had seen part of their production affected. by the cold wave.
An alternation between spring mildness known over the last few days and a very wintery rigor for a end of March which is not so rare. It is even rather frequent in the spring according to the specialists. This was the case last year, but also in 2018 or 2013 when in two days the temperatures dropped by 14°C.