orange vigilance lifted, except in Drôme and Ardèche

2023-09-18 06:50:17

After a hectic weekend, the weather promises to be a little less stormy on Monday September 18 in France. In the West, orange vigilance has been lifted and in the South-East, only Ardèche and Drôme will be placed on orange thunderstorm and rain-flood vigilance in the middle of the day, according to Météo-France.

Rainy and stormy activity will be temporarily sustained, particularly from Ardèche and the middle Rhône valley to the northern Alps and the Jura.

As the storms pass, strong gusts will also be feared on the Côte d’Azur. This area will gradually shift east of the Rhône then towards the Alps in the afternoon. More moderate rains will reach Corsica.

In the rest of the country, the start of the morning will be calmer overall, with showers initially limited to the Channel and Atlantic coasts, cloudy skies in the north, sunnier in the southwest.

Then the instability will start again. Showers, interspersed with sunny spells, will increase and cross most regions from west to east. Although less intense than Sunday, the storm lines may be accompanied by hail and gusts, particularly from the Center to the northeast quarter. More isolated storms will occur in Languedoc-Roussillon and in the interior of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. A calm will appear from the northwest at the end of the day.

A mini-tornado in Mayenne

Mini-tornado in Ernée, Mayenne, September 17, 2023. JEREMY LEROUX / JEREMY LEROUX VIA REUTERS

On Saturday, the Hérault department, placed on red alert for rain and floods, was affected by very heavy rainfall, leading to the closure of a railway line, while several roads were cut.

This episode notably caused flooding in the town of Lunas, in the north of the department, where the flood of the Orb carried away “several cars” and flooded “several houses in a hamlet located on the edge of the watercourse”without causing any casualties, the mayor of the town, Aurélien Manenc, who is also a firefighter, testified to Agence France-Presse.

In Mayenne, a mini-tornado formed on Sunday, around 6 p.m., near Ernée, damaging several buildings which collapsed without causing any casualties, according to the departmental fire and rescue operational center.

The World with AFP