A southwest quarter isolated from the rest of France. From the south of New Aquitaine to the west of the Mediterranean basin, temperatures are particularly mild this Saturday morning, even though they are around zero or have even fallen into negative temperatures everywhere else. The mercury should also increase during the day around the Mediterranean, while conversely, an orange snow-ice alert will begin in the evening in 30 departments in a large northeast quarter.
This Saturday morning, “the weather is mild” in the South-West, notes Météo France in its daily bulletin. Conversely, the forecast agency notes “still negative” temperatures in the Massif Central, with the fear of black ice, a risk also present “in Breton lands”. The weather elsewhere is “dry but very cold”, with freezing fogs from the Paris Basin to Champagne, and “frequent frosts”, with -4 to -6°C from the North-East to the North of the Rhône-Alpes.
Up to 30°C difference
This Saturday morning at 8 a.m., the Weather Channel noted striking contrasts on , up to 5°C on the Vendée coast.
Negative temperatures even cover a large part of the territory, particularly in the East which displays -3 to 7°C, and even -19°C in the Doubs, at the level of the Alps. We also get up to -9°C in the Drôme valley. The only exception to this clear division is the eastern coasts of Corsica, where the temperature rose to 10°C.
In a report shared on . For example, he notes – 23.4°C in Pierrefontaine-Les-Varans, in the Doubs, compared to 13.4°C in Cambo-les-Bains, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Still in Doubs, La Chaîne Météo also observed – 23°C in Les Fourgs and – 21.5°C in Maîche.
Also on an “absolute record”, against the 13°C of the Arcachon basin. In La Brévine, a Swiss border town, the mercury even plunged to -31°C.
Météo Villes meteorologist Guillaume Séchet notes “up to -30°C in the Jura” at 6 a.m., compared to 12 already in the South-West, a “very significant temperature contrast”.
This afternoon, this shift will continue with clearings from the south of Aquitaine to the Pyrenees on one side, and on the other side unsettled weather from the South-East to the North-West, with a little snow and black ice expected “from Normandy and the north of the Centre-Val de Loire region to Burgundy-Franche-Comté”, then Île-de-France in the evening, according to Météo France.
But the mildness is gradually gaining on the Mediterranean rim as well: as in the southwest of the country, we will expect 8 to 14°C there this afternoon. A peak of 16 to 18°C is expected in the south of Aquitaine, while in the north of the Loire and the north-eastern quarter to the north of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, the mercury will not rise above 3° C, with -1°C expected locally.
The redoubt will spread throughout the country on Sunday
In the North-East, an orange alert will even be triggered in the evening for 16 departments for icy snow, due to “a winter episode requiring particular attention”. “A disturbance associated with a lot of mild air will sweep the entire country in a southwest/northeast direction” on Saturday and during the night from Saturday to Sunday, according to Météo France, which specifies that “this disturbance will come encounter a mass of cold air, causing snowfall and especially freezing rain for a few hours, until the mild air definitively wins.
Sunday will in fact be marked by a rise in temperatures throughout the territory, with “very mild air which will gradually invade the northern half, temporarily chasing away the cold of the previous days”, notes the forecast agency on its site. So much so that the mercury will even rise in the northern regions in the morning. The mildness will continue in the South-West, but the mercury will also reach between 10 and 15°C everywhere else in the afternoon. The forecasting agency anticipates, for example, 16°C in Tarbes, but also 15°C in Marseille and Auxerre, 12 in Paris, 13 in Brest, 11 in Lille…
Spring values in the middle of winter, since the normal temperature for this season rises on average to 12.1°C in mainland France according to Météo France, compared to 5.9°C for the winter season. Generally speaking, despite regular episodes of extreme cold and frost between November and January, the general trend is towards warming: the overwhelming majority of the mildest winters on record have occurred in the last twenty years, after the forecaster.
In its report on last winter, “the 3rd warmest ever measured in France”, with a shift from normal of around 2°C, the agency noted that under the effect of climate change, the mercury is rising and the winter season shortens. “Our winters are less cold than before, lasting frosts and snow on the plains are becoming more and more rare,” she explained.
