GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
This photograph taken near Vernou-sur-Brenne, central France, on April 4, 2022, shows a fruit tree next to candles lit in the vines to protect them from frost in the Vouvray vineyard.
AGRICULTURE – Temperatures that make the splits. Several departments recorded frosts early this morning of Thursday April 18. Meteorologist Guillaume Séchet notably reports frosts in Champagne Ardenne and Lorraine. Even more, it is snowing in the Alps, with temperatures between -4 and -2°C this morning in Alpe du Huez (Isère).
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A stark contrast, when just a few days ago the temperatures were spring, even summer. It was 18°C at Alpe du Huez on Monday, while Météo France noted “record temperature levels in France during the weekend of April 12, 13 and 14, 2024”. Even more, according to meteorologists the first half of April 2024 was the hottest ever recorded in France.
“We no longer know how to dress” we could complain. But beyond this wardrobe problem, this radical change in temperature especially worries farmers who risk losing their harvest. With the early heat of the last few weeks the orchards have started to bud. This “false spring” could prove fatal with these frosts which return with a vengeance this weekend.
“They are a month ahead of their development”
“We don’t really know what to grow anymore. I have fruit trees, they are very subject to frost so it is quite stressful all year round. We never have peace of mind,” confides an arborist from Drôme to RMC. To anticipate this episode of frost and avoid losing his future harvest, he is spending this Thursday equipping his 7,000 fruit trees with anti-freeze candles. A challenge to accomplish before tonight, when temperatures are expected to plummet.
French orchards are concerned, but also those throughout Central Europe, notes agrometeorologist Serge Zaka. “These orchards have been experiencing record heat for weeks. Result ? They are a month ahead of their development and their sensitivity to frost has increased tenfold, he says on his Twitter account. This type of frost is classic in April. There will certainly be no (or few) cold records. The problem is not the frost but the mild winter and spring weather. »
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“False spring” and climate change
Even more problematic, this phenomenon has been repeated in recent years as global warming increases. “The problem of climate change is on the one hand the reduction in frosts (there are fewer and fewer late frosts), but also more spring starts early in the year,” previously indicated in HuffPost climatologist Robert Vautard. Unfortunately, “studies show that the appearance of “false springs” is not compensated by the reduction in late frosts”, he specifies.
According to the scientist, the “false spring” will continue, leaving the plants still vulnerable in the event of frost episodes in April. And faced with such a phenomenon, farmers lack solutions, in particular for arborists and winegrowers: because if we can, to a certain extent, postpone sowing, it is not possible to control the flowering of trees. . Unless we plant new species, more resistant to climate change.
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