orange vigilance extends, 52 departments on alert Thursday

The snow and wind alert is confirmed: 52 departments have been placed by Météo-France on orange snow-ice and/or wind alert for Thursday.

From Côtes-d’Armor to Haut-Rhin

For risks of snowfall and ice, the departments concerned are Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, Calvados, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Mayenne, Manche , Orne, Sarthe, Loire-et-Cher, Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, Cher, Loiret, all departments of Île-de-France as well as Aube, Yonne, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Haute-Saône, Doubs, Territoire de Belfort and Haut-Rhin. Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-Maritimes are also affected. Seine-Maritime was added to the list on Wednesday evening by Météo-France.

For the wind, another western axis is concerned, further south than the departments alerted for snow. Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Ain, Isère, Rhône, Loire, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Creuse, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Deux-Sèvres, Charente, Gironde, Charente-Maritime, Vendée and Loire-Atlantique are on wind orange vigilance. Finistère and Morbihan were added to the list on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, the Caetano depression, which will cross the center of the country from East to West, will generate “a major conflict of air masses”, warns Météo-France.

150 km/h on the heights of the Alps

North of this depression, snowfall and ice reaching the plains are forecast between the end of the night from Wednesday to Thursday and the evening of Thursday, from Brittany/Normandy to Center-Val de Loire, via the Île-de-France, and as far as Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

In the southern part of the depression, strong winds are expected, with gusts generally between 100 and 120 km/h on the coast of the departments placed on orange alert. Inland, gusts are generally around or exceed 100 km/h in the departments on orange alert, with peaks around 110 km/h more occasionally. On the terrain we can reach 110 to 130 km/h on the Massif Central and more than 150 km/h on the highest points of the Alps.

Be careful on the roads, Normandy suspends public transport

Snowfall is expected to be “significant enough to make driving conditions difficult”: 2 to 5 cm are expected in the plains, locally up to 10 cm above 200/300m, and up to 15 to 20 cm on the east of Franche-Comté, warns the organization. In Ile-de-France, we expect 1 to 3 cm, locally 5 to 7 cm in the south of the region. At altitude, the expected amounts of snow are 5 to 10 cm at 400 meters, 15 to 30 cm at 800 m, 20 to 40 cm from 1200 to 1500 meters and 40 to 60 cm of snow at 200 meters.

The Normandy region, in consultation with the prefectures, has “decided to suspend school and commercial transport lines” for the entire day of November 21, 2024, in the departments of Orne, Manche, Calvados and Eure. This Wednesday, the two Corsican departments were placed on orange alert for violent winds. Transport services are at a standstill on the Isle of Beauty.