Snow and ice: 10 departments remain on orange alert

The affected area shrinks but several regions remain affected. Météo France is keeping 10 departments on orange alert this Saturday (level 3 out of 4) due to the snow and ice that have affected France since the night of Thursday to Friday.

The center of the country, the Alps and Corsica are the places where caution remains. The list of orange alert departments is as follows: Cantal, Haute-Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, Ain, Isère, Savoie, Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse.

In addition, a large part of the country remains on yellow alert (level 2 out of 4) for the same reasons.

/Meteo France

The general trend is towards “attenuation of snowfall”. In the Massif central, the additional cumulation can reach “5 cm to 10 cm above 800 m, locally 10 cm to 15 cm”. Météo France warns against the “freezing” during the night.

In the Alpes, it is in the Vercors and Chartreuse mountains that snowfall will continue the most. In addition to the refreeze, the meteorological organization warns against “persistent traffic difficulties linked to the formation of snowdrifts”.

On Corsica, “the rain-snow limit is generally around 500 m to 600 m, and will then rise to around 800 m to 900 m at the end of the afternoon”. Due to the wind, snowdrifts can also form in this region.

Great danger for crops overnight from Sunday to Monday

Due to these conditions, frosts continue to occur until Tuesday. They will be locally pronounced for the season, in particular on the night from Sunday to Monday. They cause serious damage to crops.

Cold records are expected as in Franche-Comté. More generally, the entire North East will be particularly affected. In Lons-le-Saunier (Jura), a temperature of -5°C is expected, more than a degree less than the previous record. Losses ranging from 80% to 100% for stone fruits are feared.

Beware, the night from Sunday to Monday promises to be the coldest in the country. Frequent and sometimes heavy frosts, sometimes threatening monthly cold records (eg in Franche-Comté!), And especially fruit trees in bloom! Risk cata. in the NE. @Weather_FC_ https://t.co/ha25f6r8J3

— Francois Jobard (@Francois_Jobard) April 2, 2022

This late winter episode has already caused the fall of a number of records. Saturday, in the Paris Basin, never for at least 70 years the highest temperatures of the day had been so low in April in some stations.

This day of April 1 was marked by an exceptional freshness. Many monthly low maximum temperature records were broken. The most remarkable are located in the south of the Paris basin, on stations with a long series of at least 70 years.
1/3 pic.twitter.com/FMVwCi4rTM

— Gaetan Heymes (@GaetanHeymes) April 1, 2022

Wednesday morning, the frosts in the plains will end.