Twenty-eight departments are placed on orange snow-ice alert on Saturday evening due to a disturbance which is expected to particularly affect the north and east of the country during this last weekend of the Christmas holidays, before a mild spell on Sunday.
“A disturbance associated with a lot of mild air will sweep across the entire country in a southwest/northeast direction, this Saturday and the night from Saturday to Sunday. In the departments in orange, this disturbance will encounter a cold air mass, causing snowfall and especially freezing rain for a few hours, the time for the mild air to gain definitively”, indicates the meteorologists' bulletin.
Aisne, Ardennes, Marne, Haute-Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Bas-Rhin, Haut- Rhine, Seine-Maritime, Somme, Vosges and the Territoire de Belfort were first placed on orange alert, before being joined by the Ile-de-France departments, Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Eure, Côte-d’Or, Aube and Haute-Saône.
Saturday around 5 p.m., the first precipitation reached the Orne in the form of “locally freezing” rain according to Météo-France. Temperatures fell below 0°C in the east of the department and in Eure-et-Loir and fell to -4°C in Dijonnais.
But from 8:00 p.m., Eure-et-Loir and Orne returned to yellow alert.
Météo-France predicts snowfall “generally quite brief”, but warns that “it can be more persistent in the border departments of the Grand-Est, possibly dropping up to five centimeters on the ground”. Freezing rain could then last “between one and three hours”.
“Traffic conditions could be tricky in the areas concerned,” warns Bison Futé, who calls on road users to “find out about changes in weather and traffic conditions before leaving.”
In Côte d'Or, traffic was prohibited for around fifteen km on the A38, west of Dijon, freezing rain having made the roadway very slippery, according to the prefecture.
On the A6, several material accidents were observed, in particular near Beaune where the motorway was cut to facilitate emergency intervention.
In several regions, authorities have limited the speeds allowed on the roads.
In Ile-de-France, the speed is lowered by 20 km/h from 5 p.m. to midnight, on the entire network, except the ring road.
The police headquarters recommends favoring public transport, equipping your car with snow tires and providing “minimum equipment (warm clothing, food, water)”.
In Hauts-de-France, between Saturday 7:00 p.m. and Sunday 6:00 a.m., vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tonnes will have to limit their speed to 110 km/h on sections of motorway normally limited to 130 km/h and 90 km /h on sections of motorways and national roads normally limited to 110 km/h.
Vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes must not exceed 80 km/h on national roads and motorways in the region and will be prohibited from overtaking.
Same ban on overtaking and reduced speed of 20 km/h for those weighing more than 7.5 tonnes in Eure.
In Côte-d'Or, Doubs, Jura and Territoire de Belfort, Marne, Haute-Marne, Haut-Rhin, Haute-Saône and Vosges, these heavy goods vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes are prohibited from driving until 10 p.m.
