France weather

[frozencanals]

Hello All,

 

I am looking forward to the coming weekend, it should be the first shot of some really warm weather this year here in the Charente.  It has already started to warm up and the almost incessant rain of the last few of weeks which has turned our garden into a mud bath, has stopped, and the wife is threatening to get her shorts out of the cupboard!

 

I hope everyone has a good weekend,

 

Cheers

 

 

FC

[keithlucky]

World record in the Pyrenees?

A short summary of what happened this weekend 1 February. Thank you to all the teams for their involvement in the management of these extreme conditions.

4 meters of snow in 3 days, it’s not all the time that you see that!

Edited March 7, 2015 by keithlucky

[frozencanals]

Morning All,

 

What a contrast with last weekend, then we were in shorts and T-shirts eating outside and thinking that winter had left us for another year.  Yet this weekend we are sitting under a slack north eastly wind with 100% cloud and today we will be lucky if the mercury reaches double figures.

 

I'm off to chop more wood for the fires, have a good weekend one and all...

 

FC

[Spikecollie]

I'm in Dijon at the moment and the weather is superb. 18c yesterday and 20 today! Clear skies and a warm wind. More like late spring than mid March. We've all been sitting out for lunch and breaks.

[Spikecollie]

Got up to 28c here in Limousin today. Fantastic!

[Blessed Weather]

France enjoying a very warm week and yesterday (Tuesday) the 30c threshold was breached for the first time this year. Some highlights from the report on the Meteo France website:

 

After a particularly sunny and warm Monday anticyclonic conditions persisted Tuesday, April 14 on the country and the threshold of 30 ° C was reached for the first time this year!

On the Aquitaine coast, it has frequently between 29 and 31 ° C in the afternoon. Météo-France has even recorded 31.6 ° C at Cap Ferret. This is a new monthly record for this station opened in 1887, the previous record of 31.5 ° C was dated 22 April 1893.

In many other French cities the maximum temperature, whilst not reaching any records, on Tuesday afternoon saw a surplus of 10 to 14c degrees above the normal 

 24 ° C in Reims
 25 ° C in Brest and Bourges
 26 ° C to Paris and Tours
 28 ° C in Toulouse and Auch
 29 ° C in Biarritz, Bordeaux, Cognac and Limoges
 30 ° C to Nîmes

 

Full report in French: http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24343512-le-seuil-des-30c-franchi-pour-la-premiere-fois
 

[Spikecollie]

Indeed, we reached 29c here in rural Limousin yesterday. Very different today though, skies slowly getting more menacing...

[Blessed Weather]

Those of you lucky enough to be living in or visiting France (and who use Meteo France forecasts) will be pleased to know that they've just announced improvements to their NWP forecasting models. A few snippets:

 

Since April 13, 2015, Météo-France have new versions of its NWP systems. These innovations will include refining the prediction of severe weather such as rainstorms, and improve the quality of forecasts for shorter maturities.

Numerical models AROMA and ARPEGE, which simulate the evolution of the atmosphere, have also evolved.
Their spatial resolution is improved. The regional model AROMA, covering metropolitan France and neighboring countries for very detailed forecasts up to 36 hours has seen its horizontal resolution * from 2.5 km 1.3 km.
The representation of physical phenomena in models also increased. The new version of ARPEGE, which covers the entire globe, for example, has a better modeling of cumulonimbus cloud type and associated precipitation. The relief is now represented more realistically in AROMA.

Improvements to AROMA will advance the quality of forecasts of rainfall stormy character (intensity and location, wind gusts associated with thunderstorms ...), wind in areas of marked relief, low clouds and fog layer .

The ARPEGE system changes will improve such forecasting heavy rainfall, storms and cloud cover. The risks associated with storms for 3 days to come, will also be better quantified.

Météo-France develops its own models in close cooperation with ECMWF and various European Meteorological Services and North Africa.

 

Full article: http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24370693-meteo-france-ameliore-ses-systemes-de-prevision-numerique-du-temps

[Blessed Weather]

Looks like France has been enjoying a notable period of sunshine (posted on Meteo France website 24/4/2015): 

 

End of a remarkable period of sunny weather

France experienced a series of notable sunny days in April. It ends this weekend but was outstanding in places, on the northeast quarter. In Strasbourg, the sky remained cloudless for 7 consecutive days, from Saturday 18 to Friday, April 24th. This series had not occurred since the week of 20 to 26 September 1997. Paris or in Le Touquet, sunny series ended Friday 24, but the period from Saturday 18 to Thursday 23 displays record times of 6 days of sunshine for April, respectively 78.6 h and 77.7 h.
  
This weather pattern has also favored strong thermal amplitudes, with very cool mornings and seasonal warmth during the day.

 

http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24567005-fin-d-une-periode-de-temps-ensoleille-remarquable

[Blessed Weather]

Some very stormy weather impacting the South of France over the last couple of days. Is this the first significant thundery weather of the year in France?

 

Meteo France website on 27/04/2015:

A change occurred during the weekend of April 25 and 26, with the passage of convective rainfall disturbances on the country, which has reached the east and south Monday 27. A first front with showers locally stormy crossed the country on 25th, while a depression has infiltrated the country from the west on 26th, creating an active rainy disruption, and causing the development of a stormy axis very strong up front. It has recorded 9,000 lightning strikes Saturday and nearly 30,000 on Sunday.

The largest rainfall was recorded in the Cevennes (a mountain range north of Montpelier and south of the Ardeche) with about a month's worth of rain, and 210mm in Villefort on Sunday night.

 

http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24640333-degradation-pluvio-orageuse-et-rafraichissement

 

Edit: I've added the relevant GFS charts from last Sunday night. The low pressure didn't look much, but look at the rainfall over the Cevennes area!

 

Edited April 27, 2015 by Blessed Weather

[Blessed Weather]

Meteo France have today issued their 3 month forecast for May, June and July 2015. In summary, a strengthening of El Nino over the period will impact Europe and, for Eastern Europe, give a hot, dry quarter, but for Western Europe the models don't give any strong indication of any particular extremes in temperature or precipitation. However, for the Mediterranean, a warmer, wetter East and a drier West.

 

Full bulletin with charts: http://www.meteofrance.com/accueil/previsions-saisonnieres

[Blessed Weather]

Heavy rains have washed away over 200 metres of the main R1212 road through Arly Gorge at Albertville. It must be causing real headaches for the local people.

 

The route of the Arly Gorge suffered extensive damage. At Moulin Ravier, "between 200 and 300 meters of road were washed away," said Roland Mistral, head of roads General Council of Savoy. "Until the water level drops back down, we can do nothing." Three other areas of erosion concerns the service roads. For Mollières, Black Combe and forks, the road could be washed away.

 

Full article in Le Dauphine: http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2015/05/02/pres-de-300-metres-de-route-emportes-par-l-arly-attention-danger

[Blessed Weather]

Further to my post above. It actually looks as if large areas of the French Alps have been affected by very heavy rains over the last 48 hours.

 

 

Record rains cause major damage

 

In many areas of the department, rain fell on Friday with almost as much rain in 24 hours as in a month. Streams and rivers then suddenly inflated, sometimes causing significant damage.

The heavy rains that fell on Friday and Saturday have cut records in many places of the region: those of highest rainfall in 24 hours, levels unseen in May.

This is not so much rain intensity that surprised Upper Savoyards but the power of the waves that ensued. Streams and rivers are then put to spoof, in record time, huge amounts of wood and miscellaneous trash, overflowing in places. Snowmelt (below 2,500 m) amplified the phenomenon. The power of the river flow has increased by 4 on average. The Giffre was even multiplied by 10! The night of Friday to Saturday was particularly rough in the Aravis, Chablais, Mont Blanc and Geneva. The Annecy basin and Albanians were relatively spared.

In total, the firefighters conducted 320 outlets in just over 24 hours (including 95 in the Aravis), only in the context of these elements. Mainly for cut roads, flooded basements, ground subsidence or flooding. Dozens of people, whose homes were threatened, were preventively evacuated.

They had mostly returned to their homes yesterday. At the height of the weather, 13 roads were closed around the department and deviations established.

 

Full article in Le Dauphine: http://www.ledauphine.com/environnement/2015/05/02/les-intenses-precipitations-survenues-vendredi-puis-dans-la-les-pluies-records-ont

 

 

 

 

 

 

[J10]

Malcolm, I saw this last night and it shows the very high river levels in these areas.

 

https://twitter.com/MintSnowboard/status/594241238854934528/photo/1

 

https://twitter.com/MintSnowboard/status/594201008454168576/video/1

 

I imagine that it is the lethal combination of heavy rain and rapid snow melt that is causing the problems.

Edited May 3, 2015 by J10

[Blessed Weather]

Hi Julian,

Those are very high river levels. You only have to look at the GFS charts for the period to see what caused this event. Take a look at the 2m temperature chart on Saturday afternoon. No wonder there were high levels of snow melt. And then the precipitation chart for overnight Saturday into Sunday. Very heavy rain. And then, as they say in France, "le voilà".

 

Temps Sat pm Precipitation overnight

[Guest]

For the most part last week was fine at Capestang (34), with temps reaching the mid 20's, though some initially light rain on Friday followed by a fairly short period of the heavier rain but it can't have been much, our garden is still bone dry.

 

Our position often means that we are shielded from the heavier stuff by the Pyrenees and the Massif.

 

After a cloudyish weekend and slightly cooler temps with max about the 20C mark to low 20's it looks like we will be back to sunshine after today.

 

In the meantime been changing our irrigation system - the previous one relied too much on very small holes which got clogged up with using water from le Canal du Midi, albeit that there would be good nutrients in it for the plants, so we have now gone over to piping with larger holes and a filter included in the system. It also meant we had to change the meter. The previous would only allow for an hour a day, which in the dry periods would not have been enough, the pressure from this source being fairly low,  to one which would allow 2 hours in a 24 hour period, which should be just about enough during the dry periods. This new one also has a little gadget which detects rainfall so it does not operate, so they say, when a half inch of rain or more falls. We will see. Hopefully some of our plants will survive a little longer.

[Blessed Weather]

Incredible photo of flooding at Avoriaz ski resort. That's one of the lift stations under water!

 

 

Extracts from the press report:

 

In Avoriaz, the station of the chairlift tower engulfed by the waters
The valley Aulps has not been spared by the exceptional climatic phenomenon which has just hit the Chablais. Lake Avoriaz overflowed, covering the bottom of the resort and the departure stations chairlifts. The costs look heavy, with lengthy repairs.

 

http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2015/05/05/a-avoriaz-la-gare-du-telesiege-du-tour-engloutie-par-les-eaux

[Blessed Weather]

Early heat in southern France reported by Meteo France:

 

Peak of early heat in southern Europe and North Africa

(Updated on 07/05/2015)

Taking advantage of a flow directed to the southwest and south during the day, the hot air from North Africa invaded the country Monday, May 4 Temperatures then reached exceptional values ​​locally at this time of the year. The thermometer thus rose to 32.7 ° C in Sartène (Corse-du-Sud), 31.4 ° C in Saint-Girons (Ariege) Monday, 4, values ​​that had never been observed before the Second half of May. 

Powerful Foehn effect in the Pyrenees

The strong flows south to the front of the depression that circulated on the Middle Atlantic has generated violent winds on the Pyrenees. It was noted, for example up to 205 km / h Pic du Midi de Bigorre (2880 m), 156 km / h in Aston (1800 m, in Ariege). By rushing into the valleys, these winds have caused a marked Foehn effect, which promoted temperature increases over the area. It has thus raised 31.4 ° C in Saint-Girons (Ariege), 30.5 ° C to Clarac (Haute-Garonne) but also 30.1 ° C in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantique). In Saint-Girons Clarac, such values ​​have never been achieved so early in the season.

 

http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24853228-pic-de-chaleur-precoce-sur-le-sud-de-l-europe-et-l-afrique-du-nord

[Spikecollie]

Early heat in southern France reported by Meteo France:

 

Peak of early heat in southern Europe and North Africa

(Updated on 07/05/2015)

Taking advantage of a flow directed to the southwest and south during the day, the hot air from North Africa invaded the country Monday, May 4 Temperatures then reached exceptional values ​​locally at this time of the year. The thermometer thus rose to 32.7 ° C in Sartène (Corse-du-Sud), 31.4 ° C in Saint-Girons (Ariege) Monday, 4, values ​​that had never been observed before the Second half of May. 

Powerful Foehn effect in the Pyrenees

The strong flows south to the front of the depression that circulated on the Middle Atlantic has generated violent winds on the Pyrenees. It was noted, for example up to 205 km / h Pic du Midi de Bigorre (2880 m), 156 km / h in Aston (1800 m, in Ariege). By rushing into the valleys, these winds have caused a marked Foehn effect, which promoted temperature increases over the area. It has thus raised 31.4 ° C in Saint-Girons (Ariege), 30.5 ° C to Clarac (Haute-Garonne) but also 30.1 ° C in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantique). In Saint-Girons Clarac, such values ​​have never been achieved so early in the season.

 

http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/24853228-pic-de-chaleur-precoce-sur-le-sud-de-l-europe-et-l-afrique-du-nord

Not forgetting the 29c days that we had in April in Limousin and elsewhere...I think this is going to be a bizarre weather year!

[Nouska]

Video of the tornado in Gerbépal.

 

[Nouska]

Great footage there.  Thanks for sharing, Nouska.  Noticed it has May 14th in the title... this was the evening of the 13th, surely? 

 

Was clear in advance that severe weather of that sort was likely, given all the necessary factors were in place. 

 

Yes, footage from evening of the thirteenth.

 

Additional report and pictures friom the chasers, which I've put through the Google mangle.

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.keraunos.org%2Factualites%2Fchasseurs-orages%2Fchasses-aux-orages-de-la-saison-2015%2Fsupercellules-orage-alsace-bade-wurtemberg-chasse-orages-guillaume-scheib.html&edit-text=&act=url

 

I particularly like this pic - very Great Plains(esque)

 

[Blessed Weather]

The heat being reported earlier this month has, for the time being, been replaced by much cooler conditions across most of France. In fact, the following article from today's newspaper 'Le Dauphine' reports that one of the high passes in the French Alps is being closed overnight as a precaution, due to expected heavy snowfall:

 

From 18.00 hours this evening, the Galibier pass is closed to traffic in anticipation of expected snowfall towards the Savoy tonight (30 to 50 centimeters). It is expected to reopen tomorrow at 10:00.

http://www.ledauphine.com/hautes-alpes/2015/05/20/le-col-du-galibier-ferme-ce-soir

 

(Col du Galibier is a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is the ninth highest road in the Alps and the sixth highest mountain pass. It is often the highest point of the Tour de France).

 

The 850hPa chart from this evenings GFS 12z run shows the cooler air mass over France, whilst the precipitation chart shows the expected snowfall in the mountains.

 

850hPa chart: Precipitation 02.00:

[Blessed Weather]

How was Spring in France? Meteo France have just posted their summary:

 

A mild and dry spring
Interim report prepared May 28, 2015

After a March near normal, the months of April and May were marked by two peaks early heat, during which monthly records were set. Spring was broadly consistent with the seasonal values over the northern half (of France) and the Atlantic coast, but average temperatures were higher by 1 to 2 ° C to normal in the Limousin Midi-Pyrenees and the Alps, as well as a large part of Corsica. Averaged over the Spring season and the country overall, the temperature was greater by 0.8 ° C above normal.

 

http://www.meteofrance.fr/actualites/25525587-un-printemps-doux-et-sec

[Spikecollie]

Heading to Limousin tomorrow to work from next week, looking forward to some real warmth and maybe the odd thunderstorm. Here's an interesting link via Meteociel to just how high those temperatures are forecast to go:

 

http://www.meteociel.fr/actu/540/pic_de_chaleur_attendu_entre_jeudi_04_et_vendredi_05_juin_2015/

Edited June 3, 2015 by Spikecollie

[Blessed Weather]

Heading to Limousin tomorrow to work from next week, looking forward to some real warmth and maybe the odd thunderstorm. Here's an interesting link via Meteociel to just how high those temperatures are forecast to go:

 

http://www.meteociel.fr/actu/540/pic_de_chaleur_attendu_entre_jeudi_04_et_vendredi_05_juin_2015/

 

Fantastic! But after the subdued temperatures of the UK, the temps in that part of France over the next couple of days may be a shock to the system! Widespread heat for France tomorrow and Friday. GFS chart below showing temps for Friday 6th June. Your link shows even higher temps for the major towns & cities.

 

 

 

P.S. I hope you'll be able to post regularly from over there.