The heat wave episode that started on Friday in France on Friday has to go up a notch on Monday. In 12 departments in the southwest of the country, red vigilance will also remain in force on Tuesday. The current heat wave should last “at least” until August 15, Météo-France announces.
From the Charente-Maritime to the Aude, in the southwest of France, maximum temperatures “very frequently higher than 40 ° C”, with “locally” points at 42 ° C, are announced according to the National Institute.
Already Sunday, several cities have already passed the 40 ° C mark, with 42.2 ° C listed in Hérault, 41.3 ° C in the Pyrénées-Orientales or 40.9 ° C in the Gard.
“We could approach record levels, record unprecedented values, but the national record of 48 ° C should remain out of reach,” said the forecaster Christelle Robert during a press point on Sunday evening.
More than 30 degrees “everywhere in France”
The heat wave, which has extended and intensified since Friday over the southern half of the country, “progresses north” according to Météo-France. “We will exceed 30 ° C everywhere in France”, with temperatures which should reach 38 ° C in Center-Val de Loire and 34 ° C in Ile-de-France, specifies the organism.
![People have a standing sunset on the quays while bathers swim in the Seine in Paris on August 10, 2025. [AFP - JULIE SEBADELHA]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== "People have a standing sunset on the quays while bathers swim in the Seine in Paris on August 10, 2025. [AFP - JULIE SEBADELHA]")
In addition to the 12 departments in red vigilance from Monday noon, 41 others were placed on orange alert.
Météo-France specifies that the current heat wave should last “at least” until August 15 weekend.
Finally, the red heatwave for the Aude, still on maximum alert after a gigantic fire, will last at least until Tuesday evening, adds the institute. In the department, mercury should be maintained between 40 and 42 ° C.
>> Read on this subject: A fire of rare intensity makes one dead and thirteen injured in the south of France
Paris suffocates, Marseille suffocates
“The nights will be quite difficult to live,” warned Christelle Robert de Météo-France, with night minimal expected at a high level: more than 20 ° C scheduled for next night in Paris.
Ozone air pollution alerts were also launched in the Marseille region and the Vaucluse.
In parallel, Météo-France ranked 20 departments, mainly in the west and south of the country, at high risk for fires on Monday.
The risk of heat wave is twice as high in France than thirty years ago
This heat wave, the second to touch the country this summer after the episode from June 19 to July 4, is also the 51st recorded since 1947, according to Météo-France.
For the climatologist Jean Jouzel, “the risk of heat wave is twice as high in France than thirty years ago”. “We are in a context of global warming documented for forty years, so let us not be surprised by what we live,” he said in an interview in the gallery on Sunday.
AFP/DOE
