Vigilance has been lifted for Cantal, Tarn, Lot and Aveyron.
The orange storm warning 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 Territoire de Belfort.
“The remarkable stormy deterioration is moving 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 accumulations of rain of 50 to 80 mm in a short period of time, very strong gusts of wind (between 100 and 120 km/h at times) and large hail (diameter which could reach or exceed 5 cm in places), as well as intense electrical activity,” warns the weather forecast service.
In the evening, 1,400 homes were without electricity in Meurthe-et-Moselle in the Piennes and Landres sector, to the east of the department, “after a line cut”, the prefecture said in a press release.
Further west, due to the heavy rains suffered in recent hours, several municipalities in the department “suffered sometimes significant damage: significant upwellings, flooded cellars, submerged roads”, indicated the Indre prefecture.
In Lorraine, where several festive events were cancelled, the Olympic flame route was able to take place in the Meuse. However, the last relay passes had to be brought forward to avoid the storms.
In Strasbourg, ahead of the possible arrival of 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.
In Doubs, the Rencontres et Racines music festival, which takes place from Friday to Sunday in Audincourt, announced on Facebook that it was not going to take “the risk of opening the festival” on Saturday due to weather conditions.
“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 at the start of the afternoon.
A “strong rainy-stormy episode” crosses “most of the country” on Saturday, Météo-France indicated. “Only the regions from Brittany to Nord-Pas-de-Calais, as well as Corsica, remain away from these bad weather, and maintain 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 period of time,” warns Météo-France.
According to Météo-France, “in Aquitaine, frequent storms were observed” on Saturday, with “strong electrical activity, locally high rainfall intensities”.
On Sunday, the situation in the North-East will be “strongly stormy” and will require “particular vigilance given the geographical extent and the intensity of the forecast phenomena”, forecasts 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 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.
