2023-08-15 19:30:00
From this Friday and for at least five days, temperatures will soar in France, due to a heat dome from North Africa.
By Nathan Joubioux for Le Point In Lyon and in the Rhone Valley, temperatures are already reaching 35 degrees. © NORBERT GRISAY / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP Published on 08/15/2023 at 7:30 p.m.
The departments of Ain, Rhône, Isère, Savoie and Haute-Savoie, placed on heat wave orange vigilance by Météo-France, are already experiencing a major heat wave at the start of the week. A phenomenon which will become generalized in France from this Friday, August 18 and which is likely to extend throughout next week, warns Guillaume Séchet, meteorologist and founder of the site Météo-Villes, in The Parisian.
The next few days are therefore likely to be “suffocating”, according to the specialist. And for good reason: “At the beginning of next week, it is possible that we will reach 35 degrees in three quarters of the country”, he specifies. And the worst day of this summer’s biggest heat wave is expected on Tuesday, August 22. The mercury could climb to 38 in Lyon, Grenoble and Toulouse.
Only the North-West will escape this heat wave a little. On average, it will be 25 degrees in Brittany and Normandy, and up to 15 degrees at night.
A heat dome from Africa
These significant heats come from northern Africa, where temperatures are abnormally high. Agadir, in Morocco, even broke its record with a reading of 50.4 degrees last Thursday. “The heat dome currently located in North Africa and Spain will intensify and expand in the coming days,” continues the meteorologist.
READ ALSOHeat wave: at least 80 excess deaths in JulyIt is therefore this heat dome, forming when there is a persistent and static anticyclone, which is responsible for this heat wave. This phenomenon, which works like a bell, is totally hermetic to depressions, which does not allow temperatures to drop. On the contrary, under this dome, they continue to increase.
And if the Northwest is not affected by this heat dome, it is thanks to a powerful ocean current.
An abnormal phenomenon
“It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen, because there are many dynamics observed”, warns Guillaume Séchet, who expects a reduction in the heat dome, and therefore in temperatures, from the end of next week. “We can go completely because there is a good chance that the ocean current will take over”.
But this heat wave is not unique to France. The entire Mediterranean region is affected by this heat dome. In Morocco, Tunisia, Greece, Spain or Italy too, the thermometers are panicking. For the meteorologist, the duration of this phenomenon is “abnormal”. Because since the beginning of the summer, the mercury has not gone down in North Africa. A direct consequence of “global warming”, he concludes.
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