France reaches 40°C in the middle of a third heatwave: 83 departments are on alert

Temperatures rose to 40 degrees this Friday in some French cities in the latest peak so far of a long third heatwave of the summer, which will subside starting this weekend, although it is not yet possible to determine the end and there is no rain in sight for the historic drought.

Thermometers reached the symbolic threshold of 40 degrees in Tours or Carcassonne, and came very close in Paris, Avignon, Chartres, or Amiens, with 39 degrees, as well as in Lyon, Beauvais, Toulouse, or Reims, with 38 degrees.

This Friday afternoon, the orange heat alert from Météo France was activated in 83 of the 101 French departments, and in fact, only a few remained excluded, basically those along the border with Belgium, on the coasts of Brittany and Normandy, and in the Pyrenees.

The alert situation remains practically unchanged on Saturday, although a gradual drop in temperatures is expected in the western half that will extend towards the east on Sunday, despite the fact that in the southeast the heatwave situation will persist at least until the beginning of next week.

In any case, meteorological services estimate that thermometers on Saturday will rise again to 40 degrees in Montélimar, to 39 in Lyon, to 38 in Auxerre or Vichy, to 37 in Strasbourg, Metz, or Bourges, to 36 in Reims, or to 35 in Paris.

On Sunday, with the arrival of a storm front, the 35-degree threshold should only be reached or slightly exceeded in cities close to the Mediterranean coast such as Montpellier or Montélimar.

In any case, it remains to be seen when this third heatwave of the summer that France has been experiencing since July 28 will end, which is already the third longest since the meteorological services implemented these alert devices.

Météo France also does not anticipate significant rainfall in its short or medium-term forecasts that could alleviate the historic drought affecting almost the entire French territory.

The high temperatures in this context of unprecedented drought favored the spread of some fires for one more day this Friday.

The most significant of all is the one that broke out on Thursday afternoon in the Landes department, and which continued to advance this Friday and had burned 1,300 hectares by mid-afternoon, explained the prefect, Gille Clavreul, in statements to the media. EFE