The cooler weather at the end of the month was not enough to lower the average temperature.
A scorching beginning of a scorching month, then a few periods of freshness: July 2025 will have experienced a very contrasting weather, but remains despite very hot degree than normal under the effect of global warming, Météo-France announced on Friday.
“On a scale of the month and the country, the average temperature of 22.0 ° C was higher than 0.9 ° C” Compared to the period 1991-2020, itself already warmed by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, said the national forecastist in his monthly assessment.
Last month started in full heat wave – the 50th since 1947 and the 33rd of the 21st century – which started on June 19 and ended on July 4.
Thus on July 1 and 2, hot anomalies up to +8 ° C compared to normal have been recorded nationally.
Locally, the thermometer has several times exceeded 40 degrees, with tropical nights putting the organisms to the test, during this particularly early, long and intense scorching episode.
July was then marked by two periods slightly cooler than normal (anomaly of -2 ° C) under the effect of depression: one between July 6 and 9, with temperatures less than 10 ° C in the morning in certain regions, the other from July 21.
Despite the impression of gloomy weather at the end of July, the sunshine was throughout the month “Compliant with seasonal values” across the country, and even surplus in the North West (+10%).
On the precipitation side, July also ranks norms at the national level but is also characterized by strong regional contrasts.
The rains, especially in the form of thunderstorms, were abundant on Languedoc and Roussillon and the Northwest, very weak from the Southwest to the Massif Central or on the coast of the Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica-du-Sud.
“We note throughout the month 80 to 120 mm from Roussillon to Provence, or on the Corsican relief, more than three times normal. In Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), it fell 74 mm, or five times the normal monthly (15 mm)”, Météo-France note.
This precipitation makes it possible to offer a certain respite to the drought of the soil in certain regions at the end of the month. Ile-de-France has thus found soils slightly humid than normal.
But this is not the case everywhere. After a drought started early due to the rainy deficit in the spring, a large southern and central part of the country, around Aquitaine, as well as the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, always know very dry soils, penalizing agricultural activities.
Under the effect of global warming, the frequency of agricultural droughts has been multiplied by two in France since the 1960s and three in the south of France.
Another notable phenomenon: Mistral and Tramontane were frequent near the Mediterranean on the second half of the month, leading to a sudden refreshment of the water temperature on certain portions of the coast. But throughout the basin, the marine heat wave continues (+1 ° C anomaly on average).
These winds, coupled with heat and drought, have favored the departures of major fires, especially in Aude and the Bouches-du-Rhône.
© Agence France-Presse