Météo-France further reduced the number of departments concerned on Saturday afternoon and evening by its orange thunderstorm vigilance, going from 28 departments reported to 24 in its latest forecast bulletin published at the end of the afternoon.
The alert has been lifted for Cantal, Tarn, Lot and Aveyron.
Orange thunderstorm vigilance now concerns Ain, Allier, Ardennes, Aube, Cher, Côte-d’Or, Doubs, Jura, Loire, Marne, Haute-Marne, Meurthe -et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, Nièvre, Puy-de-Dôme, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Rhône, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Vosges, ‘Yonne and the Territory of Belfort.
“The remarkable stormy degradation is circulating from the southwest to the northeast of the country,” notes Météo-France.
“In the Grand Est, the storms will be particularly virulent, with the possibility of cumulative rainfall of 50 to 80 mm in a short time, very strong gusts of wind (between 100 to 120 km/h occasionally) and large hail ( diameter which can in places reach or exceed 5 cm), as well as intense electrical activity”, warns the weather forecast service.
“The stormy deterioration has well established itself from the southwest of the country to the Massif Central and towards the Grand Est,” indicates Météo-France. “Diluvian storms impacted the Tarn department where we recorded 61 mm in one hour in Dourgne, 56 mm in one hour in Montredon and 66.6 mm in three hours in the same place,” continues Météo-France.
In its previous bulletin, it indicated that storms with rainfall intensities of around 20 to 30 mm/h had been observed in the Lot department at the start of the afternoon.
A “strong rainstorm” is crossing “most of the country” on Saturday, Météo-France had indicated. “Only the regions from Brittany to Nord-Pas-de-Calais, as well as Corsica, remain safe from this bad weather, and maintain a calmer but cloudy weather.”
For the departments concerned by this vigilance, the meteorological service warns of a “strong summer stormy situation which requires particular vigilance given the geographical extent and intensity of the predicted phenomena”.
“In addition to intense electrical activity, these storms can cause violent gusts of wind, hail and heavy accumulations of rain in a short time,” warns Météo-France.
In Lorraine, where several festive events were canceled, the journey of the Olympic flame was able to take place in the Meuse. The final relay handovers, however, had to be brought forward to escape the storms.
In Strasbourg, ahead of the arrival of possible storms, the town hall announced in a press release the closure from 5 p.m. of six municipal parks and the city’s nine cemeteries. “Their reopening will depend on changing weather conditions.”
In Doubs, the Rencontres et Racines music festival, which is being held from Friday to Sunday in Audincourt, announced on its Facebook page that it would not take “the risk of opening the festival” on Saturday due to the weather conditions.
According to Météo-France, “in Aquitaine, frequent storms were observed” on Saturday, with “strong electrical activity, locally strong rain intensities”.
On Sunday, the situation in the North-East will be “very stormy” and will require “particular vigilance given the geographical extent and intensity of the predicted phenomena”, predicts Météo-France, according to which, “in addition to intense electrical activity, these storms can cause violent gusts of wind, hail and heavy accumulations of rain in a short period of time”.
“Rains, still locally stormy, will remain in the forecast until Sunday morning in the North-East. Their intensity is expected to gradually decrease,” according to the meteorological agency.
