A large southern part of the country will undergo temperatures this weekend between 34 ° C and 40 ° C, and which can reach 41 ° C of the Cévennes foot at the Rhône valley, according to Météo-France.
For Saturday, 28 southern departments are already on orange heat wave, underlines Météo-France which signals some “remarkable” temperatures noted at 3:00 pm: 38.0 ° C in Lyon-St-Exupéry, 36.8 ° C in Montélimar (Drôme) or 35.8 ° C in Bordeaux-Mérignac.
On Sunday, “the heat will further rise from a notch in the south” and the alert will be extended to almost the entire half of the country, with now 42 departments outside Corsica in orange heat wave, which is also likely to be further.
As for the day on Monday, it will be characterized by an “rise in an extremely hot air mass on a large part of the country”, including north of the Loire, and will undoubtedly be “the warmest nationwide”, said the forecastist.
“The peak is expected between Monday and Tuesday. (The heat wave) should last until next week,” he comments.
In these circumstances, “Protect yourself”, insists Météo-France, calling everyone to stay in the fridge, favor “soft and effortless activities” or “take news of (their) close and most fragile”.
“We adapt our rhythm of life, yes. We go out earlier, just to walk a little, and then after we are at home,” observes Eric Khellas, a painter met by AFP on the heights of Lyon on Saturday.
To cool off, summer visitors are also very numerous by the water or in the mountains, while others are looking for alternatives, including underground.
In Dordogne, where peaks are expected at 38 ° C on Saturday afternoon, the Villars cave, adorned with prehistoric paintings old 20,000 years, should fill up with visitors all weekend.
“We systematically have peaks of visits when it rains, to take shelter, and when it is too hot, to refresh yourself. Usually it is quieter on Saturdays in August, but there we go on a big day,” says one of its managers, Benoit Birckel, at the reception of the site located 40 km north of Périgueux and whose galleries display a stable temperature around 13 ° C, whatever season.
But for Ophélie and Aurore, two young women in her twenties who did not wish to give their names and work in a food store in the center of Grenoble, the day promises to be “painful” because “it is often hot in the store than outside”. And no respite when they return home, their apartments being “badly isolated”.
After a first heat wave from June 19 to July 4, this episode has been the 51st heat wave recorded in France since 1947.
“We note an acceleration of the occurrence of heat waves over time. This trend is well linked to climate change, which has a strong impact on temperatures in France,” Lauriane Baté, climatologist at Météo-France told AFP.
The episode is accompanied by a “high” danger of forest fires around the Mediterranean periphery, while the fire which traveled 16,000 hectares in the Corbières massif still mobilizes 1,400 firefighters on Saturday will not be under control before Sunday at the end of the day, according to the firefighters.
He also coincides with a weekend of hunting-crossed between car vacationers. A peak of 1,240 km of traffic jams has been reached shortly before noon, beyond the levels already considered as “exceptional” by smart bison.
The SNCF, for its part, indicated that it has deleted several round trips on the Bordeaux-Marseille and Paris-Clermont lines in order to “anticipate” potential air conditioning breakdowns linked to the very high temperatures “in its oldest trains.