Update on the last Cévennes episode from Tuesday 15 to Thursday 17 in the evening with Météo France in Aix-en-Provence with the cumulative precipitation recorded.
From Tuesday October 15 in the evening to the following Thursday, 10 p.m., the Cévennes episode was marked in the Cévennes Gardoises but also in Lozère and Ardèche. “In the Ardèche Cévennes, over two days, we experienced the rainiest episode in the history of this department with cumulative precipitation of 627 millimeters and even 700 mm in places”notes Georges Alcalde, weather consultant in Aix-en-Provence for Météo France.
A phenomenon that the organization well anticipated with this hot and humid air coming from the Mediterranean by quickly placing the Gard, then Lozère and Ardèche on orange alert then red for the latter two.
Mediterranean waters still warm
The Cévennes part of the Gard was not spared by two successive low pressure systems: the first on Tuesday evening and the second on Wednesday, a trough which deepened over Spain, well supplied with humid air. “There was a lifting of two air masses at the Cévennes with heavy precipitation, but also lightning strikes. But Thursday evening, around 8 p.m.-10 p.m., we were in more of a frontal system.” This can be all the more dangerous as we are talking about storms that are not very mobile.
321 mm in 48 hours in Valleraugue
With Mediterranean water still warm at this time of year, at 19-20°C, Météo France indicates that we cannot rule out a new episode in a few weeks. For the latest rain-storm disturbance to date, in 48 hours, 200 mm of precipitation was recorded on average over the entire Cévennes Gardoises, from Tuesday evening to Thursday 10 p.m., with 321 mm in Valleraugue, 317 mm at Mont Aigoual , 276 mm at La Borie du Pont in Dourbies as well as 231 mm at Saint-Cécile d’Andorge.
Further proof of the Cévennes episode phenomenon, the cumulative rainfall only reached 36 mm in Alès, 32 mm in Nîmes and 20 mm in Aigues-Mortes.
France
