France, crossed by a long wave of precocious heat, has just known its second warm month of June, marked by the drought and a historic heat wave, the government and Météo France announced on Wednesday July 2.
“June 2025 became the second hottest month of June since the start of the measures in 1900, behind June 2003”announced the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher. The average temperature over the month was 3.3 ° C above normal, behind the record anomaly of 3.6 ° C of June 2003, according to the National Meteorological Agency.
This historical measure was fueled by “A wave of early and long heat” Who “Started on June 19 on France and should end in the first days of July”according to Météo France. This is the 50th national heat wave since 1947, 33 of which took place in the 21st century, illustrating the increase in the frequency of hot weather under the effect of global warming.
“The number of days during which the maximum temperature exceeded 35 ° C on certain cities is unprecedented for a month of June”adds the national agency in its monthly assessment: eleven days in Avignon (Vaucluse)-breaking the seven-day record of 2022-, nine days in Toulouse, Nîmes and Carcassonne, four in Colmar (Haut-Rhin)
“Suffocating” nights
“Only a few regions near the Channel and the relief areas have not experienced temperatures above 30 ° C”continues the observatory. The national record of 46 ° C, established in 2019, still holds, but the 40 ° C mark was crossed in several places in the country during five different days in June.
Another indicator, very scrutinized by healthcare professionals because it is decisive in the resistance of fragile people on extreme deadly heat: “The nights remained suffocating near the Mediterranean”frequently above 20 ° C, “Consequence of a very hot water temperature (25 ° C, + 5 ° C compared to normal)”.
According to Météo France data, only ten days since 1947 have been warmer nationally than on June 30: that day, the warmest ever measured in June, saw the national thermal indicator, established by the daily average of thirty representative stations of the territory, stop at an exceptional 28.2 ° C.
At the same time, “Precipitation is deficit of 30 % on average on the country, with a particularly marked deficit near the Mediterranean”with rains “Sometimes even nonexistent as in Marseille, Cassis (Bouches-du-Rhône) or Ajaccio and Calvi”.
Consequence of heat, sunshine and lack of rain, the “Dryness of the soils settled in early spring on the northern third of France”affecting vegetation, forests and agriculture.
