After a slight lull on Thursday, due to thunderstorms, the thermometer starts up on Friday, with 80 departments placed in orange vigilance by Météo-France, on the eighth day of the heat wave which affects the country and southern Europe.
The mercury must reach 40 ° C again – “punctually more” – in the southwest, indicates the last bulletin of the institute, which also provides very strong temperatures “on the Mediterranean arc”.
With 35 degrees announced, “the heat wave also wins Brittany, hitherto spared”, notes the national forecastist, while “regresses” in the north of the country, classified in green. Ile-de-France will no longer be in orange vigilance at 6:00 a.m. Friday.
The current heat wave for eight days must last at least until Tuesday but “at this stage, we do not envisage red vigilance for this weekend,” said Damien Griffaut, Météo-France, Thursday during a press point.
The time remains to adapt to heat to which the elderly and isolated are particularly vulnerable, even if prevention has improved since the deadly heat wave of 2003
JOEL SAGET – AFP/Archives
The time is therefore to adapt to heat to which the elderly and isolated are particularly vulnerable, even if prevention has improved since the deadly heat wave of 2003.
In Bordeaux, which had broken its heat record on Monday with 41.6 ° C, a municipal register lists more than 3,600 “fragile” people, including a quarter of “isolated seniors”.
The town hall decided to open, Friday and Saturday afternoon, three air-conditioned reception places for the elderly; Museums and three swimming pools will also be open on this holiday, among other exceptional measures.
– “suffocating” –
Simon-Pierre Van Ginneken, a 44-year-old father, however decided to flee the 32 degrees of his apartment in the north of the city to “take refuge” with friends in Ille-et-Vilaine (only yellow alert department) for the next three days.
Children refresh themselves in a fountain in Brume in central Paris on August 13, 2025, in the heat wave
Dimit Dilkoff – AFP/Archives
“I have a two-year-old girl, it quickly becomes suffocating for her, so we will ride for six hours on Friday morning but it will save her three scorching days from sleeping badly,” he explains, aware, however, that in the village where he goes, more than 30 ° C are announced.
In the Landes, where the Dax Feria is held until Sunday, which brings together several hundred thousand people every year, the municipality has canceled certain animations on Friday “due to the hot weather”.
The risk of fire will also be high in the coming days in the south and the center-west, due to drought and winds.
The calcined landscape after the transition from the fire to Coustouge, in Aude, August 8, 2025
Lionel BONAVENTURE – AFP/Archives
From Saturday, “we have the establishment of a tramontane and a mistral on average Rhône valley. Even if they are moderate, this will lead to risks” of the risks, particularly marked on the Aude and the Drôme which “will pass in danger of very high fire, therefore in red”, added the forecaster of Météo-France.
New thunderstorms, early next week, should lower temperatures according to the Institute and put an end to this new episode of heat wave, the second of summer and the 51st in France since 1947, these phenomena being made more frequent and more intense by climate change.
In France, 266 weather stations recorded at least once a temperature of 40 ° C or more between August 9 and 12, 2025 included. More than all the second half of the 20th century (235).
AFP / Bordeaux (AFP) / © 2025 AFP
