end of red alerts, 18 departments still on orange alert

Météo-France has lifted its last four red rain-flood alerts, while the south-east of the country is still on alert due to “exceptional” floods.

Vigilance still ongoing. While the worst of the bad weather seems to have passed this Friday morning, Météo-France has finally lifted the red rain-flood vigilance in the last four departments affected this night: Rhône, Loire, Haute-Loire and Lozère.

The French forecasting institute also announces the end of the orange rain-flood alert in the departments of Ardèche, Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, Aveyron, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et -Dear, Indre and all the departments of Île-de-France.

The orange rain-floods and thunderstorms alert has been lifted in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var, where showers are still possible, but “no longer justify maintaining the orange level”, explains the institute. During the rainy episode, the accumulations are close to 40 to 80 mm locally up to 150 to 250 mm in the west of the department.

However, 18 departments still remain on orange flood or rain-flood alert. The bad weather is all the more frequent as the rain falls on soils saturated with water and already weakened by Storm Kirk.

Calm in the Cévennes and the South-West

Significant floods are spreading on the Rhône, from Avignon to the sea, on the Loire, Allier and Var. On the hills of the Cévennes, where particularly intense rain fell on Thursday, a lull is underway and the floods are well underway, but several rivers are experiencing damaging overflows.

In the Alpes-Maritimes, some occasional stormy precipitation will still occur and in the South-West, the rains will continue for a long time and generate significant accumulations of precipitation in places, explains Météo France. Over the entire rainy episode, accumulations of 50 to 90 mm of rain are expected with possible peaks of around 100 mm between the Lot and the Tarn.