Southeastern France placed on orange heatwave alert

National forecaster Météo France has placed 12 departments in southeastern France under an orange warning for high temperatures today (July 21).

“From the Lyon region to the Northern Alps to the Rhône valley to the north of Valence, maximum temperatures – having dropped slightly – will reach 31-35C,” Météo France has said.

The departments concerned by the alert are: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Ardèche, Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, Gard, Isère, Rhône, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Vaucluse.

A further nine departments surrounding the orange alert zone are also under yellow canicule warnings.

In the south east, the heatwave is expected to continue for several days with temperatures of 31-35C around Lyon and the Rhône valley.

Along the Mediterranean coast, there will be highs of 36-39C, with some places reaching 40C. However, the sea breeze may make some areas feel a little cooler.

Over the coming days, “maximum temperatures will largely remain above 35C” to the south of Aubenas (Ardèche) and Montélimar (Drôme).

“Further north, in the departments under the heatwave alert, maximum temperatures will fluctuate more from day to day, but spikes of 36-38C are still possible, especially on Friday and Sunday.”

Yesterday, highs of 38C were recorded in Le Luc-en-Provence (Var), 37C in Lyon (Rhône), Montélimar and Chambéry (Savoie), and 36C in Grenoble (Isère).

At 05:00 this morning, it was 27C in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), 25C in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Nîmes (Gard) and 24C in Chambéry and Montélimar.

Related articles

Red weather alerts lifted as heatwave moves eastwards across France

People in Ile-de-France can smell smoke of Gironde fires 500kms away

Are there more wasps in France this year? Yes, says expert