Be careful in the south of France. Bad weather, sometimes severe, has been occurring there since Thursday and more is expected from the end of the day this Friday, according to Météo France.
The meteorological organization has also placed two departments on orange alert (level 3 out of 4) due to rain and storms: Aude and Hérault. Three others are on yellow alert (level 2 out of 4). These are Haute-Corse as well as the Pyrénées-Orientales and Gard.
Météo France describes “sometimes stormy rain, which can occasionally cause intense precipitation in a short time”. “This Friday at the end of the afternoon and during the night from Friday to Saturday, the cumulative precipitation could reach 80 to 100 mm, occasionally a little more in just a few hours”, or up to nearly 100 liters per square meter.
In a city like Montpellier (Hérault) this corresponds to a month of rain at this time of year and approximately 1/6th of the annual precipitation. A “worsening of vigilance” is possible, Météo France warned, when the department was still only on yellow vigilance.
Concerning storms alone, Keraunos, the French observatory for tornadoes and violent storms, is not particularly concerned. It reports a “risk of storms which should remain fairly low, punctual and not very virulent”.
For Saturday, “in the north-east of Corsica, significant accumulations are possible”, specifies Météo France. Here too a possible reassessment of the level of vigilance is possible.
Significant quantities of water have already fallen locally since Thursday evening. This is particularly the case in the areas of Torreilles or Canet-en-Roussillon, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, where it rained the equivalent of a month and a half of precipitation.
Further south, in northeastern Spain, a stationary thunderstorm caused damage. In Cadaqués it fell up to 150 liters per square meter, causing significant flooding.
The sector is only on yellow alert. It should be lifted gradually by tomorrow.
