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These Météo-France data illustrate the recurrence of extreme weather events in 2024. (Illustration image)
Weather – The weather is not going well and this Météo -France data show it well. In his «Bilan Vigilance 2024» Published this Friday, July 4, the forecaster is pleased to have detected “More than 99 % of dangerous weather phenomena”but also stresses that their number continues to be very large in France.
With “132 Orange or red vigilance days in France and Corsica”the year 2024 was marked by many extreme weather events. Their number remains “Clearly above the average of 114 days” per year since 2011.
As illustrated The graphic belowpublished by Météo-France, if 2024 is not the worst year in terms of Red and Orange vigilance, more numerous in 2017 or in 2023 for example, their number remains quite high compared to years like 2012, 2013 or 2014.
Rain-Innondation alert record
2024 is mainly ill for a record of episodes of extreme rains requiring the highest degrees of alert of the population. Among the most rainy ever measured, last year “Is characterized by a record number of episodes of orange or red vigilance for rain-run, with 23 episodes against 15 on average over the period 2012-2023”explains Météo-France.
“It is linked to the fact that spring 2024 has been the most watered since 2008 and the fourth since the start of the measures in 1959”told AFP Véronique Ducrocq, director of operations for forecasting at Météo-France. Of the 69 episodes of meteorological dangers for which orange or red vigilances were activated on one or more departments, 18 concerned thunderstorms.
What fucks “A fairly atypical year”illustrating the effects of climate change, with “This species of inter-annual variability where one can go from an extremely dry year like 2022 to an extremely humid year like 2024”according to Benoît Thomé, Director of Institutional Relations at Météo-France.
Just fewer heat waves, but a very hot year
Even if it is among the hottest years ever recorded, 2024 has been relatively spared by the heat wave, unlike 2023 and 2022. Only two episodes requiring an orange or red alert have been recorded. But the increase trend is clearly visible: of 2.2 episodes requiring at least one yellow alert department per year between 2004 and 2014, there have been an average of 4.9 episodes per year over the last ten years, Météo-France said to AFP.
Conversely, in a France where the last ten years have been 2.2 ° C warmer than at the end of the 19th century, “Cold episodes are becoming rare” : “Since 2013, a single cold episode has been listed”in February 2021, according to this assessment arrested on December 31, which did not count the episode of January 2025.
