28 departments placed on orange vigilance Thursday

Météo-France has placed twenty-eight departments on orange snow and ice vigilance on an axis going from Brittany to the Grand-Est and including Ile-de-France, from Thursday at 6 a.m., according to a bulletin published Wednesday 20 November at midday. “On Thursday, the Caetano depression will cross France from west to east and will cause snowfall” and ice, including on the plains, which could be “significant enough to make traffic conditions difficult”specifies Météo-France.

These snowfalls are forecast “between the end of the night from Wednesday to Thursday and the evening of Thursday” and orange vigilance is maintained at least until Thursday midnight. “We expect 2 to 5 cm in the plains, locally up to 10 cm above 200/300m, and up to 15 to 20 cm in the east of Franche-Comté”adds Météo-France.

The departments concerned by orange vigilance are: Aube, Calvados, Côte-d'Or, Côtes-d'Armor, Doubs, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Ille et- Vilaine, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Manche, Haute-Marne, Mayenne, Orne, Haut-Rhin, Haute-Saône, Sarthe, Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Vosges, Yonne, Territoire de Belfort, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val de-Marne, and Val-d'Oise. “An extension of this vigilance to some neighboring departments remains possible”underlines the forecaster.

The passage of this depression occurs within the framework of a “early winter episode” with the arrival from Wednesday of a “polar air mass” causing temperatures to drop. These latter “should peak between 5 and 10ºC at the best of the day, i.e. values ​​comparable to the January averages”according to Météo-France. The cold is expected to persist on Friday before a “powerful redoux” expected during the day on Saturday.

In the southern part of the depression, more precisely on the Atlantic coasts from Aquitaine to Pays-de-Loire up to the Massif Central, strong wind gusts capable of exceeding 100 km/h are possible. “A change to violent wind orange vigilance is likely in the next updates of the vigilance map”reports the forecaster.