140 km/h winds batter north France, UK plane has to divert

Winds of up to 100 km/h are set to continue to batter the northern French coastline this morning (Monday January 22) and follow gusts of 140 km/h yesterday evening.

The gales, caused by storm Isha blowing across the English Channel, were particularly strong in Barfleur on the Normandy coast overnight.

Parks, cemeteries, and other public spaces are temporarily closed in Paris this morning due to the storm, announced the mairie, however they should be open again by this afternoon.

Winds could reach 85 km/h in the capital until the early afternoon.

They caused chaos yesterday in the UK, reaching 180 km/h in Scotland and 150 km/h elsewhere.

A Ryanair plane flying from Manchester to Dublin was forced to make an emergency landing in Paris Beauvais airport – 800 km south of its intended destination – after winds made it too dangerous to land in the Irish capital.

The plane reached Irish airspace before being turned south to France.

In comparison to last week’s heavy snow, weather this week is set to be unseasonably warm and almost all of France will see temperatures of 10C or higher daily.

In some areas a temperature difference of almost 20C is expected between last Saturday and today.

However, there will also be steady rainfall, particularly in the north, until the latter half of the week.

Gales to die down this afternoon

The strongest gales from storm Isha passed over France this morning, but winds will still be stronger than usual throughout the day.

Winds of between 70 km/h and 90 km/h are expected in the northern half of the country, says Météo France, although locally these could be higher. Along the Norman coastline winds will remain at 100 km/h.

A last bout of strong gusts, of between 90 km/h to 100 km/h, will hit the rest of the northern coastline just after midday.

The wind will return to average levels by early afternoon, however as far south as the Massif Central mountain range could still reach 80 km/h into the evening.

Some train services in Brittany are currently disrupted, and are set to return to normal at around 16:00. A train between Rennes and Brest was delayed by over five hours last night due to the storm.

As of 09:00 on Monday, there are no travel disruptions to flights arriving or departing Paris or other northern French airports.

Most cross-Channel ferry services are unaffected although some Brittany Ferry services have been cancelled. It is not known if this is due to the winds, as a number of services previously scheduled for this week are affected. You can check updates here.

Read more: Ports prepare for new border checks and 5 other France travel updates

A warmer week in store

Temperatures rose over the weekend, due both to the end of bitter northern European winds, and the arrival of Atlantic weather patterns bringing warm but wet weather to the north-west.

Throughout much of the week, temperatures will be 10C or higher, particularly from Wednesday (January 24) onwards.

The rapid temperature change means some areas in the north which experienced minus temperatures during Saturday daytime may see temperatures close to 20C today.

This is particularly the case in the Hauts-de-France and Normandy regions, as well as around Reims.

In Arras, temperatures swung by 25C over the course of three days, after a record-breaking -14.7C was recorded at the end of last week.

Further information over the level of rainfall is expected later in the week, although weather experts are not currently predicting that rivers are at risk of bursting their banks.

Related articles

‘Face the reality’: France ‘must prepare’ for +4C global warming

Ten tips on insurance claims for storm damage in France