He remembers perfectly the end of the day on June 29. From the power of the storm, the water entering the agricultural mechanic’s workshop and the after-school welcome. “We were expensive that day… And this despite the work carried out in recent years around the Auxigny river which made it possible to limit the damage and reduce the risks,” says Fabrice Chollet, the mayor of Saint- Martin-d’Auxigny. Its commune, like its neighbors Saint-Palais and Saint-Georges-sur-Moulon, was recognized as being in a state of natural disaster following this meteorological event.
This June 29 in Saint-Martin-d’Auxigny remains engraved in the memories of the town. It stands out in the weather data of the year. With 75.3 mm of precipitation, this is the one-day rain record in the department for 2024. A year which, after two dry winters, summer droughts, water restrictions, was marked by precipitation abundant and regular, in the Cher as well as nationally.
Nearly 1,000 mm over the past year
“This is the first time in a long time that we have had so much precipitation between September and March,” noted this spring in our columns Aurélien Charron, of the Météo Center association. In May, precipitation amounted to 126.48 mm instead of 76.9 mm on average in the department. “In June, the Cher received an average of 130 mm for a normal of 59, an excess of 119%,” it is noted in the July bulletin of the Regional Directorate of the Environment, Planning and Development. housing (DREAL) Centre-Val de Loire. In Bourges, 114 mm fell during this month dominated by stormy episodes, or +96% compared to normal. July remained rainy, with a surplus of 24%.
August, with its very modest rainfall (15 mm on average, or a quarter of the monthly normal), was only a parenthesis. The Cher received an average of 123 mm of rain in September (136 mm in Bourges), an excess of 92%, specifies Dreal. This is more than the increase observed at the national level (+60%), which makes this September the wettest in twenty-five years for the country.
