MAP. Winter storm Caetano: violent winds, rain and first snowfall, Météo France switches 54 departments to orange vigilance and 37 to yellow

Snow on the plains on an axis going from North Brittany/Normandy to the Grand-Est. Sometimes heavy snow in the Alps. An episode of strong winds from the Atlantic coasts to the Northern Alps as well as to the South-East and South-West then again in Corsica.

The first snowflakes have already been falling in Brittany since this Thursday morning. The salt spreaders are starting to come into action as our colleagues from RTL indicate.

These are Météo France's forecasts for this Thursday, November 21, 2024. The weather police are also placing 54 departments on orange vigilance and 37 on yellow vigilance due to the Caetano storm which will hit France today via Brittany and cross the country.

21 departments on orange wind vigilance

• Finistère
• Morbihan
• Loire-Atlantique
• Vendée
• Deux-Sèvres
• Vienna
• Charente-Maritime
• Charente
• Gironde
• Haute-Vienne
• Hollow
• Puy-de-Dôme
• Allier
• Loire
• Rhône
• Ain
• Haute-Savoie
• Savoy
• Isère
• Upper Corsica
• South Corsica

29 departments on orange snow ice vigilance

• Seine-Maritime
• Some
• Calvados
• Your
• Val-d'Oise
• Côtes d’Armor
• Ille-et-Vilaine
• Orne
• Mayenne
• Eure-et-Loir
• Sarthe
• Loir-et-Cher
• Yvelines
• Paris
• Essonne
• Seine-et-Marne
• Yonne
• Loiret
• Cher
• Nièvre
• Dawn
• Côte-d’Or
• Haute-Marne
• Vosges
• Haute-Savoie
• Haut-Rhin
• Doubs
• Hautes-Alpes
• Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

41 departments on wind yellow vigilance

• Calvados
• Some
• Côtes d’Armor
• Ille-et-Vilaine
• Mayenne
• Orne
• Eure-et-Loir
• Sarthe
• Loir-et-Cher
• Maine-et-Loire
• Indre-et-Loire
• Internal
• Cher
• Nièvre
• Saône-et-Loire
• Jura
• Doubs
• Dordogne
• Lot-et-Garonne
• Landes
• Pyrénées-Atlantiques
• Hautes-Pyrénées
• Gers
• Tarn-et-Garonne
• Lot
• Corrèze
• Cantal
• Haute-Loire
• Aveyron
• Ardeche
• Drome
• Hautes-Alpes
• Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
• Alpes-Maritimes
• Lozere
• Gard
• Hérault
• hears
• Tarn
• Haute-Garonne
• Ariège

27 departments on snow-ice yellow vigilance

• Finistère
• Morbihan
• Loire-Atlantique
• Maine-et-Loire
• Deux-Sèvres
• Vienna
• Indre-et-Loire
• Internal
• Hollow
• Haute-Vienne
• Allier
• Puy-de-Dôme
• Corrèze
• Cantal
• Lozere
• Saône-et-Loire
• Loire
• Rhône
• Ardeche
• Jura
• Haute-Savoie
• Ain
• Isère
• Drome
• Haute-Loire
• Alpes-Maritimes
• Savoy

Other departments could switch to orange and some to red

Météo France warns that the perimeter of orange vigilance “may still evolve slightly over the coming hours. Whether for the “snow” risk or the “wind” risk, certain departments concerned at the margins “could see their level of “aggravated vigilance”.

“A winter storm occurs several times a year, requiring special vigilance due to the expected strong winds.”

Violent winds of up to 150 km/h

Still according to forecasters, “the westerly wind sets in at the very beginning of the day this Thursday on the Atlantic coast, then will progress quickly towards the east of the country on a Poitou-Charentes/Northern Alps axis. On this episode, we expect gusts generally reaching 110 to 120 km/h on the coast of the departments placed on orange vigilance, up to 130 to 140 km/h in the south of Brittany, and occasionally a little more on the exposed islands and capes.

From 110 to 130 km/h on the Massif Central

Inland, gusts are generally around or exceed 100 km/h in the departments on orange alert, “with peaks around 110 to 120 km/h in places. On the terrain, we can note 110 to 130 km/h on the Massif Central and more than 150 km/h on the peaks of the Alps.

In Corsica, the westerly wind will strengthen again in the evening, this episode of wind will be briefer and less strong than the previous one but it could still cause damage with gusts of around 100 to 130 km/h , and even 160 to 180 km/h on Cap Corse.

Note that the departments bordering those placed on orange alert may locally be affected by gusts of 90 to 100 km/h.