Enjoy the sun, but storms are on way

AFTER a weekend of storms in the north and east of France and nearly 136,000 lightning strikes across the country, there is more coming later this week.

The weather will continue hot with a high of 38C in Périgueux and Poitiers (although a low of 15C in Haute-Normandie) and will be sunny across the country for the next couple of days.

Isolated thunderstorms are a strong possibility along the Mediterranean coast and especially the Pyrenees and Alps with the threat of hail in the south-east.

But it will break down on Wednesday with rain and heavy storms in the south-east with plummeting temperatures, then spreading across the country on Thursday and becoming thundery.

On Friday 13 departments were put on orange thunderstorm alert and the first storms happened around midday in Normandy, moving on to Picardie and Nord Pas-de-Calais.

Winds reached up to 120kph at Cambrai and driving rain saw 8cm fall in two hours at Epehy, Somme, with rivers of mud running through streets.

Trees were blown down near Douai and near Cambrai taking down power lines that saw 4,500 left without electricity on Saturday morning in Aisne and Somme.

Saturday saw violent storms hitting the Alps, with rivers of mud flooding basements in Mont-de-Lans and Deux Alpes. At Chamonix a mudslide struck the military training school and buried a chalet to halfway up the first floor.
Lightning strikes over past 24 hours in Europe graphic - www.lightningmaps.org