Five departments placed on orange “rain-flood” vigilance for Wednesday

Five departments, Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Lozère, Gard and Ardèche, have been placed on orange “rain-flood” vigilance, announced in its 6 a.m. bulletin on Wednesday October 16 Météo-France, which is considering an alert at least until midnight. All, except Ardèche, are also on orange “thunderstorms” alert.

Lozère and Gard had already been placed at this level of vigilance on Tuesday afternoon for an autumnal episode in the Cévennes described as “classic” by the forecaster. The latter recorded 73 millimeters of rain in Rousses, in Lozère.

Widespread accumulations of “120 to 150 millimeters” are expected on the Cévennes relief and “occasionally up to 250 millimeters on the Aigoual massif and Mont Lozère”warns Météo-France.

Concerning the two departments of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the meteorological agency mentions a “intense rain-storm episode requiring special monitoring due to its intensity and the sensitivity of the potentially impacted areas”. “In the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes, during the day, storms that are sometimes not very mobile can produce 80 to 120 millimeters in a few hours”concludes the public establishment.

According to its latest update, the two alerts, for rain-flood and thunderstorms, run at least until midnight.