Météo France lifted the orange alert for thunderstorms early on Friday July 17 in all the departments of the south-eastern quarter still affected, after having warned earlier against falls of large hailstones and gusts of wind which have already caused damage in recent days. “The virulent storm episode is now over,” meteorologists indicated in their latest bulletin.
During the night, some 8,000 homes were without electricity in the Loire department due to storms, according to a press release from the prefect on X, counting more than 600 emergency interventions across the territory. L
he Loire firefighters said Thursday evening that they had intervened for a short and intense “mini-tornado type phenomenon”, mixing rain, hail and strong winds, but very localized, north of Saint-Étienne. The heatwave episode of recent days in France continues to “regress”, affirmed Météo France.
From this morning, only the following south-eastern departments will be on orange alert: Ardèche, Drôme, Gard, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Haute-Corse, Corse-du-Sud – joined from midday by Hérault.
In these 10 departments, temperatures could reach between 34°C and 38°C during the day, forecasters anticipate. Nearly half of France is green again for the heatwave, from the Massif Central to the Atlantic coast and as far as the North and Pas-de-Calais.
