► 34 departments on orange alert
The Kirk Depression began to sweep France on Wednesday October 9, with “intense rain” expected from Vendée to the Ardennes as well as a “very strong gust of wind” in the east of the country, Météo France alert.
34 departments, particularly in the Paris basin as well as in the east and southwest of the country, are now placed on orange alert.
Among these departments, 24 are placed on orange vigilance for “rain-flood”ten for « vent » and two for floods (Seine-et-Marne and Vendée), details the bulletin published Wednesday at 10 a.m.
A month of rain is expected to fall in one day on an axis going from Vendée to Champagne-Ardenne via the Paris region. The weather forecasting organization warns of the risk of flooding, due to “soils already very wet” after a particularly rainy month of September.
► Gusts of 90 to 150 km/h
“During the afternoon, from Dauphiné to Lyonnais to the Loire and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, we expect gusts of 90 to 110 km/h”warns Météo France, which emphasizes that they occur on “regions weakened by yesterday’s heavy rains”.
Gusts of up to 120 to 150 km/h on the summits and 100 to 110 km/h on the plains were already expected in the Pyrenees and Béarn.
► Heavy rain expected in the west
“Over the last 6 hours, the rainfall accumulations still remain modest, between 5 and 10 mm, locally 15 mm”indicates the Météo France bulletin. According to forecasts, the bulk of the depression should arrive in the West at midday.
In the Pays de la Loire, the first region affected by the center of the depression, « 60 à 80 mm » and until « 90 mm » Rain is locally expected during the day. In Loire-Atlantique, the rains will increase in intensity during the day, reaching 10 to 15 mm in an hour, according to a press release from the prefecture.
The rains will gradually ease but « 40 à 60 mm » are still planned in the Paris basin and in Champagne-Ardenne and « 30 à 50 mm » near the Belgian border.
Stormy rain will also affect the Alpes-Maritimes in the evening. Currently on yellow alert, they could be placed on orange alert.
► No major damage, 19 departments on orange vigilance Thursday
No major damage was reported as of mid-morning Wednesday.
Furthermore, Météo France only estimates the number of departments that will be on orange alert on Thursday at 19, only for “rain-flood”and mainly in Île-de-France and Lorraine.
► Consequence of global warming
Storm Kirk is part of the very humid trend of the year over most of mainland France. At the end of the rainiest month of September in 25 years, the average annual precipitation totals have already been exceeded almost everywhere in the country, in Nice, Saint-Nazaire, Strasbourg and even Le Mans and Paris.
Globally, September was marked by “extreme precipitation”exacerbated by the abnormally hot temperatures on the planet for more than a year, a consequence of climate change caused by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the European Copernicus Observatory.
