Eleven French departments will be placed on orange alert for “strong winds” this Saturday, December 7, 2024, Météo France announced this Friday. This vigilance is linked to the passage of Storm Darragh over the British Isles, which will notably have a strong impact on the French regions bordering the Channel. The departments on orange alert are: Finistère, Morbihan, Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, Manche, Calvados, Seine-Maritime, Somme, Pas-de-Calais, Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales. Many departments in the western half of France are also on yellow alert.
Windy all day Saturday
The winds carried by Darragh will approach the north-west of France during the night from this Friday to Saturday. They will blow over the regions bordering the Channel and their hinterland throughout the day on Saturday, before calming down during the night from Saturday to Sunday. At the end of Saturday, Roussillon will also be strongly affected by the winds from the Tramontane, reinforced by Darragh.
It is this dynamic that the animation below presents. Taken from European model forecasts, it shows the wind gusts expected in France between this Saturday morning and Sunday noon.
Gusts at 130 km/h
On the most exposed capes of Cotentin, North Brittany and the Opal Coast, the most powerful gusts should reach 130 km/h, sometimes more locally. On the rest of the coasts, the most intense gusts will very regularly exceed 100 km/h. Note that, according to certain models, potentially strong winds are also expected on part of the Atlantic coast, reaching up to 100 km/h.
In the lands of Brittany, Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France, the different forecast models envisage gusts frequently exceeding 80 km/h.
France
