In Brittany, should we prepare for ever more brutal floods?

The reflex is not noble but it is very human. Everyone looks at the terrible Spanish floods and wonders whether such devastating rains and deadly floods would be possible in other latitudes. In Brittany for example.

On October 29 in the Valencia region, up to 600 millimeters (mm) of rain fell in some places. That is 600 liters of water per m². The equivalent of what falls in eastern Brittany in one year. In these proportions, Brittany therefore does not seem concerned. “In meteorology as in climatology, we must be wary of hasty conclusions and expressions like “We have never seen this in living memory.” The Saint-Malo storm of 1929 proves it,” corrects Franck Baraer, climatologist at Météo France.

The danger of summer storms for cities

During this now widely documented storm (see elsewhere), 246 mm of rain fell. “A staggering quantity of water which proves that, here too, rains…