A tip du 1er May have summer perfume. After Temperatures “worthy of full summer” Wednesdayespecially in the northern half where he made between 25 to 29 ° C, The thermometer will climb again this Thursdayto frequently reach 26 to 30 ° C, according to Météo France.
Once is not customary, the northerners will still sweat a little more than the average. “Since the start of this heat episode on Tuesday, it is north of the Seine that we find the highest temperatures,” confirms to the Parisian Gilles Matricon, meteorologist for the weather channel, adding that « Heat records were broken Wednesday in Rouen, Lille, Dunkirk ”. “It’s a bit of France upside down,” adds the specialist.
Heat due to the combination of two phenomena
This Thursday, it is the capital that will be “the hottest city in France”, with a thermometer that could display more than 30 ° C in the afternoon, according to the expert. “We are on temperatures of 10 degrees above seasonal normal on average, which will even be higher than that of a full summer in the afternoon,” explains Gilles Matricon.
But if The northern part of France has airs of August this weekit is no coincidence. This heat is due to the combination of two phenomena: “The first reason is the presence of an anticyclone that persists in the north of France and which warms the air on the spot, that makes a heat pump effect”, lists the meteorologist.
The second reason, “It is the presence of a southern wind, resulting from a depression in Portugal, which accentuates this phenomenon,” he adds. It is for this reason that the south of France is less affected by this episode of heat, according to the expert: “The Mediterranean regions receive a fresher wind, coming from the sea, so it tempers the increase in temperatures. »»
An early phenomenon
Is this level of heat extraordinary? “It is not exceptional, but it is remarkable,” says Gilles Matricon. First by its duration, according to the specialist, which recalls that the episode “started on Tuesday and that it must last until Friday, four days”. Then, by its location, “the north is often less concerned by the heat episodes than the South,” he adds.
But what makes him remarkable is “especially his precocity and his records beaten,” said the expert. In Paris, where the thermometer could reach 30 ° C this Thursday, the previous temperature record on May 1st occurred in 2005 with 28.7 ° C recorded at the time. “30 ° C in the capital on May 1, it has never happened since the creation of the surveys,” notes Gilles Matricon. On average, since 1991, it is on June 16 that the temperature reached for the first time in Paris the 30 ° C in the year, according to data from Météo France.
If these heat episodes are not unusual, “they are more and more frequent and earlier” in France since the late 1980s, the expert estimates, “especially due to global warming”. And for the next few days? From Saturday, “summer is over,” notes Gilles Matricon. Time will deteriorate between Saturday and Sunday and temperatures will drop below seasonal normal. “It’s going to be brutal, we’re going to go from summer to fall during the weekend,” warns the specialist.
