2024 is one of the rainiest years ever recorded in France.
Absolute rainfall records have been broken in many cities, announces Météo-France.
The increasingly frequent alternation of very dry summers and very rainy winters worries experts.
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The year 2024 in France, one of the hottest ever measured behind the recent peaks of 2022 and 2023, was also one of the rainiest, with annual records broken in several cities in the northern half, according to the updated report from Météo France published Tuesday. “Certain cities had never experienced so much rain in a year since measurements began, such as Paris (901.1 mm of precipitation), Melun (994.9 mm), Blois (905.6 mm), Le Mans (960.9 mm) or Saint-Nazaire (1,106.1 mm)”indicates Météo-France.
7th rainiest year
In the capital, precipitation measurements from the historic Montsouris park station date back to 1873 and the previous record dated from the year 2000. Less old, the other stations cited date back to 1945 for Le Mans, 1957 for Saint-Nazaire, or 1990 for Blois. These records are part of a year “marked by numerous bad weather and intense precipitation episodes“recalls the meteorological agency.
“With more than 1075 mm on average across the country, an excess of +15%, 2024 should be the seventh rainiest year since 1959”concludes the press release. Corsica is the only region to experience a rainfall deficit over the year. Full of water, “the soils remained wetter than normal for eight months, unheard of in more than thirty years”with serious consequences for agriculture, still raises the toll.
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A taste of the future? Not necessarily, because, according to climate projections for France, “Precipitation will remain very variable and its long-term evolution, on a national scale, is very uncertain”. Météo-France, however, expects “an increase in precipitation in winter and a decrease in summer”i.e. an unfavorable annual distribution for agriculture or flood prevention.
2024 is also going down in history due to extraordinary heat, for the third year in a row: the national average temperature was 13.9°C in 2024, which ranks it 4th among the worst years. warmest since the start of national measurements in 1900. 2024 is only preceded in France by the record year of 2022 (14.5°C), almost equaled in 2023, and by 2020.
“A sign of climate change, 9 of the 10 hottest years in France occurred after 2010”underlines Météo-France. But the temperature of 2024, a record year globally, is not expected to remain exceptional for long: Météo-France expects it to be exceeded in the country “more than one year in two” by 2050, taking into account the current trajectory of greenhouse gases emitted by humanity.
