After a very disrupted year in 1999, marked by episodes of frequent strong winds, heavy rains and floods, an explosive depression hit France. THE meteorologistsmeteorologists had anticipated the arrival of stormy winds in the northern half of France, but at that time, the warnings weather reportweather report did not exist and the forecasts were not as precise. During this Christmas period, many French people had not followed the “news” on television (the Internet was only just beginning, without yet being popular). There stormstorm Lothar was therefore a terrible surprise for many French people: the wind blew at more than 100 km/h across almost the whole of France, and up to 180 km/h locally. The Paris region experienced a real nightmare: 173 km/h in Orly and 169 km/h in Paris, unthinkable!
A few days before the year 2000, some French people admitted to having believed they were witnessing… the end of the world. The forests of northern France were devastated and many schools and businesses had to close for several weeks. Lothar caused the deaths of 30 people.
A second storm at more than 200 km/h
But the last days of 1999 took an even more incredible turn: the next day, a second storm, Martin, hit the country. This time, it is the southern half which is more affected. The storm first hits Brittany, then descends towards the southwest. The winds are worthy of those of a category 3 hurricane: 150 to more than 200 km/h. We recorded 205 km/h in Mandelieu-La-Napoule and 198 km/h on the island of Oléron. A total of 92 people lost their lives during these two storms.
An INA documentary on the two storms of 1999. © INA Société
Although predicted by Météo France, the winds were largely underestimated: forecasts envisaged 130 to 150 km/h. Météo France had to face severe accusations and admitted, at the time, that the “dexplosive development of depressions has been underestimated »: the jet stream was overpowering at the time of the two depressions and caused an unprecedented acceleration in the winds.
This weather disaster remains the deadliest to occur in mainland France, apart from the heatwave of 2003. It was following these “storms of the century” that the first weather alerts were created in France, with the arrival of vigilance from Météo France since 2001. If weather alerts had existed at the time, almost the entire northern half would have been placed on red alert on December 26, and almost the entire southern half on December 27.
The damage would not have been prevented, but the human toll would undoubtedly have been very different.
