“Marked lightning”, hail … Thunderstorms strike France this Sunday, 21 departments in orange vigilance

This Sunday, July 20, 2025, as the day before, on Saturday, moreover, will be placed under the sign of lightning. In addition, A new stormy salvo is expected almost everywhere in France.

About twenty departments in orange, almost 80 in yellow – "marked lightning", hail … thunderstorms

At 6 a.m., this Sunday, six departments were placed in orange vigilance by Météo France for risks of violent thunderstorms. For example, This alert was Extended to 21 departments for thunderstorms and rain-rounds in the updated bulletin of 10 hours. Therefore,

• • Ain : thunderstorms
  • Ardèche : thunderstorms

  “marked lightning”, hail … thunderstorms

  • Côte-d’Or : thunderstorms
  • Doubs : thunderstorms
  • Drome : thunderstorms
  • Isère : Rain-InDonation, Thunderstorms
  • Jura : thunderstorms
  • Loire : thunderstorms
  • Haute-Marne : thunderstorms
  • Meurthe-et-Moselle : thunderstorms
  • Meuse : thunderstorms
  • Moselle : thunderstorms
  • Bas-Rhin : thunderstorms
  • Skin : thunderstorms
  • Rhône : thunderstorms
  • Haute-Saône : thunderstorms
  • Saône-et-Loire : thunderstorms
  • Savoy : Rain-InDonation, Thunderstorms
  • Haute-Savoie : Rain-InDonation, Thunderstorms
  • Vosges : thunderstorms
  • Terr. However, Belfort : thunderstorms

These departments. placed in vigilance from 1:00 pm and until 12:00 am, will experience a “notable storm episode” with “strong accused rain” and “a high probability of violent phenomena”.

In parallel, dozens of departments are in yellow for thunderstorms, rain-rumors and wind.

In the map below, of the European Meteorological Model ECMWF, (resulting from meteologix), you can observe the evolution of thunderstorms throughout the day on Saturday (from 4 p.m. on Saturday, at 6 a.m. on Sunday, the time is at the bottom right of the image). Each image corresponds to an hour. The more the color turns to purple, the more violent thunderstorms promise. In detail. these “echo tops” indicate the maximum height to which a radar detects raind drops, hail or snow in a cloud. The higher the echo top, the more powerful the thunderstorm.

Violent gusts, hail …

The meteorological service provides gusts of wind between 70. 90km/h which can reach “very punctually” 120km/h in the northeast of the country, “rainy intensities of around 15 to 30 mm” or even 40 mm “very locally” in an hour, “small or even medium hail falls” and a “particularly marked lightning density”.

In the middle of the afternoon. evening, strong thunderstorms develop between the east of the Massif Central and the Alps. The sky is cloudy in the southwest. On a large northwest quarter, the variable sky wins to the IDF, the showers are always locally stormy.

Chaotic evening

In the evening. accumulations of rain from 50 to 80mm in the Rhône-Alpes zone and “in particular on the Alpin and Pre-Alpine massif” will be able to “generate problems of mud and/or “marked lightning”, hail … thunderstorms runoff flows”, warns Météo-France.

“It is not planned to extend orange vigilance at present. ” explains Météo-France, but “the follow-up of the situation and the latest forecasts could lead to a potential extension to the west and the south of the area already in orange”.

Thunderstorms will evacuate “towards the Bénélux. Germany at the end of the afternoon at the latest but may be followed by showers and other thunderstorms”. The risk of thunderstorms is not excluded on the center-east of the country.

The situation should calm down slightly tomorrow, but thunderstorms are not to be excluded.

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