the essential
Météo-France presented the final climate report for 2024, a year marked by numerous bad weather and episodes of intense precipitation. Here is a summary of the final data collected over the last twelve months.
The year 2024 in France, one of the hottest ever measured behind the recent peaks of 2022 and 2023, was also one of the rainiest, with annual records broken in several cities in the northern half, according to the updated report from Météo-France published this Tuesday, January 6.
“2024, 7th rainiest year since 1959”
“Certain cities had never experienced so much rain in a year since measurements began, such as Paris (901.1 mm of precipitation), Melun (994.9 mm), Blois (905.6 mm), Le Mans (960.9 mm) or Saint-Nazaire (1,106.1 mm)”, indicates Météo-France. In the capital, precipitation measurements from the historic Montsouris park station date back to 1873 and the previous record dated from the year 2000. Less old, the other stations cited date back to 1945 for Le Mans, 1957 for Saint-Nazaire or 1990 for Blois. These records are part of a year “marked by numerous bad weather and episodes of intense precipitation”, recalls Météo-France. “With more than 1,075 mm on average across the country, an excess of +15%, 2024 should be the 7th rainiest year since 1959,” concludes the observatory. Corsica is the only region to experience a rainfall deficit over the year.
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2024 climate report in France: precipitation, sunshine, temperatures… the weather year in figures
Sodden with water, “the soils remained wetter than normal for eight months, unheard of for more than thirty years”, with serious consequences for agriculture, notes the report. A taste of the future? Not necessarily because, according to climate projections for France, “precipitation will remain very variable and its long-term evolution, on a national scale, is very uncertain”. Météo-France, however, expects “an increase in precipitation in winter and a decrease in summer”, i.e. an unfavorable annual distribution for agriculture or flood prevention.
Exceptional heat in 2024
The year 2024 also goes down in history due to extraordinary heat, for the third year in a row: the national average temperature was 13.9°C in 2024, which ranks 4th. of the hottest years since national measurements began in 1900. 2024 is only preceded in France by the record year of 2022 (14.5°C), almost equaled in 2023, and by 2020. “A sign of climate change, 9 of the 10 hottest years in France occurred after 2010,” underlines Météo-France. But the temperature of 2024, a record year globally, is not expected to remain exceptional for long: Météo-France expects it to be exceeded in the country “more than one year in two” by 2050, according to -given the current trajectory of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The least sunny year in 30 years
2024 is the least sunny year in thirty years, with a deficit of almost 10%. In December, if the sunshine was consistent with normal on a national scale, it was very deficient in the north of the Loire (from – 30 to – 50%), excess in the south-eastern quarter (+ 20 to – +30%).
