Storm Bella: Strong winds and snow in France on Sunday

Weather services in France are predicting strong winds and snowfall from Sunday (December 27) across the northwest of the country, caused by the arrival of Storm Bella from the Greenland Sea.

“More than half of France will be affected between Sunday and Monday by very strong winds linked to Storm Bella,” weather channel La Chaîne Météo states.

“There will also be very heavy snowfalls to the west of the Massif Central and to the south of the Alps.”

The weather service says there could be “gusts of up to 120 km/h on the coast and 80 to 100 km/h inland”.

The storm, which should progress towards the Pays de la Loire region, the Paris basin and the Hauts-de-France on Sunday morning, and reach as far as Auvergne and Franche-Comté in the evening, should relatively spare Occitanie.

Avalanche risk

During the night from Sunday to Monday there will be a snowstorm over the Alps, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, from an altitude of 800 metres", La Chaîne Météo notes.

The weather channel states that there could be exceptional snowfall, with “one metre of fresh snow at 1,000 metres and two metres at around 1,800 metres, increasing the risk of an avalanche which could become strong or even maximum".

While the cold should limit the risk of flooding, "the expected volume of rain could cause some flooding" in the southwest of the country.