The maximum vigilance remains on Wednesday August 13 for the Aude and four departments of the Rhône valley overwhelmed by an intense heat wave which fade on the Atlantic facade but now progresses to the northeast.
In the southwest, the heat wave vigilance switched from red to orange at 6:00 a.m. for nine departments, where temperatures will still remain “Very hot”according to Météo France.
Monday and Tuesday, the thermometer has already broken several records, bordering on 43 ° C in Saint-Laurent-du-Pape (Ardèche) and Saint-Côme-d’Olet in Aveyron (42.9 ° C). For the first time, he made 37.2 ° C in the small village of Sauvages (Rhône) yet located at 831 m altitude.
If temperatures mark “A little the step” Wednesday in the south, they will be “Light up” In the northeast, with 40 ° C points planned in Burgundy. In the capital, it will still be around 35-36 ° C, after an already hot Tuesday.
With nearly 70 departments in orange alert and five in red, only a north-west quarter remains relatively spared by the frantic excitement of Mercury, to the chagrin of those who have to work, especially outdoors.
Red heat wave will remain in force until Thursday 6:00 a.m. in the five departments concerned, Météo France announced in its latest bulletin.
Wednesday, punctually strong thunderstorms are also expected from the middle of the afternoon and until the end of the evening of the Southwest in the center of the country, as well as on the Southern Alps with 12 departments placed in orange alert.
A “warmer air” than before
Red heat wave alerts have also been triggered in Italy, Portugal, Balkans or Spain, where several dozen fires are active, one of which left one dead. Thousands of people also had to be evacuated.
How can wet heat kill?
Sylvie Husson, Sabrina Blanchard, Stéphane Koguc / AFP
“These very high temperatures result from the very hot air mass, but also from the influence of climate change”explains Lauriane Baté, climatologist at Météo France, which gives an air “Warmer” on average that there is “A few decades”.
Temperatures equal to or greater than 40 ° C have been recorded more than 1,800 times in the last ten years in France against less than 40 times in the 1990s, according to data from the weather stations analyzed.
In Aude, vigilance remains «Maximum» To avoid any reactivation of the fire which traveled 16,000 hectares before being mastered on Sunday.
In Île-de-France, the Air Airparif observatory announces an episode of ozone pollution which could be extended until Thursday, accentuating the health risks linked to pollution.
France has suffered since Friday its 51st heat wave since 1947 and its second in the summer of 2025. According to Météo France, it should continue at the end of the week with “A new scorching peak expected for the weekend of August 15”.
After the heat, a risk of locally strong storms is expected in the southwest, before going up north as well as on a south-eastern quarter of the country, according to forecasts from Météo France.
