Bad weather is expected to return next week, with an overall drop in temperatures and the first snowfall. If snowflakes are logically expected on mountain ranges, they should also be observed in certain plains.
After the rain… snow. Despite a slight improvement – and a few rays of sunshine – this weekend, after the passage of a cold drop over France, the good weather should disappear again next week to give way to rain, cold and even snow at the end of the week, on the mountain ranges but also in the plains. Snowflakes are expected in seven French departments.
While on the mountain ranges, snow can already make brief appearances from the end of August – beginning of September above 2,000 to 2,500 m altitude, in the plains, we frequently encounter episodes of snow from the second half of the month of November until March or April, sometimes even May.
And for good reason: in autumn, the warm air masses still present in the country at the start of the season are gradually confronted with increasingly cold air masses coming from the polar regions. These air masses build up over the weeks around the North Pole which receives less and less solar energy.
Depending on weather patterns, polar air masses can descend suddenly on France, causing snowfall all the way to the plains. Unsurprisingly, it is the regions with the most continental climate, from the central-east to the north-east, which are often affected first.
Seven departments concerned
According to Météo-France forecasts, the anticyclone present above the country should in fact subside towards the Atlantic in the coming days, giving way to progressively more depressional conditions for the start of next week. This return of more humid and agitated conditions, from Monday, will be accompanied by the flow of a mass of maritime polar air coming from Northern Europe towards France. Conditions that could cause snowfall in the plains.
The second half of November should therefore offer France snowflakes, on the mountain ranges at low, medium and high altitude but also in less hilly regions. Seven departments are particularly concerned: Cantal, Hautes-Alpes, Savoie, Haute-Marne, Moselle and Bas-Rhin, in addition to the Territoire de Belfort.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday it will snow in the Aurillac (Cantal), Belfort (Territoire de Belfort) and Chaumont (Haute-Marne) sector. Snowfall will then affect Gap and Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the Alps. Metz and Strasbourg could also experience their first snowfall of the season.
