Record-Breaking Heat Wave Sweeps France as Moroccan Air Mass Brings 40°C Temperatures

"Next week will be particularly hot for the season! The 30°C mark will be exceeded at the foot of the Pyrenees on Tuesday. We even expect peaks of 34-35°C in the plains on Wednesday. The risk of thunderstorms will be quite diffuse and of low intensity," Meteo Pyrenees warned on its Twitter account on Saturday. For its part, the French reference site on storms and tornadoes in real time, Keraunos, in a post published on the same social network, warned that "the weekly anomaly is expected to be very significant (+7°C around 1,500 m in the south) and that the "ridge (famous heat dome) centered between Morocco and Switzerland" would "favor the rise of an abnormally warm air mass for the season".

"Thunderstorms will continue to evolve locally over France on Monday. They will be more frequent and sometimes moderate in Normandy, as well as from the Auvergne to the eastern borders, where they may produce locally heavy rain and hail," the site specified. Météo-France expects, for its part, temperatures felt at the hottest of the day between Tuesday and next Friday afternoons. "It is from the southwest to the east-central region that the heat will be the most unpleasant to bear with a feeling sometimes close to 36 to 40°!" it is specified. The hottest days will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, "with a risk of breaking records," explains Météo-France.