2023-05-14 18:02:09
Heavy rains fall on the Pyrénées-Atlantiques while the Pyrénées-Orientales are on drought alert. However, only a few hundred kilometers separate them.
We will have to wait a few more days to see the arrival of good weather. For the moment, the contrast is quite impressive in France. On one side, waterspouts fell on the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. A flood was notably recorded at 3.66 meters in the town of Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle. On the other hand, the department of Pyrénées-Orientales has been placed in a state of crisis linked to drought, forcing the population to learn to live with water restrictions. Especially since temperatures will also drop, especially in the north of the country, warns The Weather Channel. But why is the weather so uneven on French territory?
We are witnessing a depression over northern Italy, a phenomenon nicknamed “goutte froide“, in which a zone of cold air is created in altitude, disturbing the masses of air and generally causing rains and thunderstorms. “Instead of circulating from West to East, the clouds and the rains descend from the North-East around this depression. They then come to block on the west of the Pyrenees“, explains Gilles Matrico, of *The Weather Channel. «Consequently, the rains accumulate on the Basque Country, blocked by the relief in front, a phenomenon called orographic blocking.»
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These are the famous rains observed in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. “They cannot pass and therefore it comes to condense and give all these precipitations, which we saw in particular during the night from Friday to Saturday on the side of the Commune of Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle“, explains the meteorologist. The Nivelle river then experienced a rapid and sudden flood, as can be seen in the video below. “ 100 milliliters of water fell in the space of three hours, that’s almost two weeks of rain“, details the meteorologist.
Conversely, on the east of the chain, “when a disturbance arrives from the north, the humidity of the disturbance comes to block on the Pyrenees and the south of the Massif central where it rains a lot. As a result, when arriving in the Roussillon plain, the air mass is dry and the weather is dry in Perpignan with tramontana», continues Gilles Maticon. Hence this dry weather that lasts indefinitely.
France split in two
How long will this depression last? “It has already been going on for several days in Italy and is spilling over into France as we can see. It will continue throughout the week, between northern Italy and Spain“, specifies the meteorologist. The south of France will experience a little more showers than the North, which will beunder the influence of an anticyclonic ridge which will come over the British Isles».
«France will therefore find itself between these two zones: the anticyclone which will cover the North with dry weather, and the South and the central regions which will be more unstable.The temperatures will be autumnal, well below average. But nothing exceptional in fact, these events are not linked to global warming, according to the meteorologist of the Chain. “Statistically, May is the wettest month of the year.».
*The Weather Channel is a property of the Figaro group.
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