France storms respite only brief as bad weather set to roll in

Stormy weather will return to France this weekend after sunshine on Thursday (June 15) and Friday (June 16).

After weeks of inclement conditions in the south of the country, most areas are now calm and set to remain that way for the rest of the working week.

Temperatures will rise to an average of 30C and sunshine is forecast.

However, the break in the weather will be slight; storms will return to the west and then much of the country as we move towards Sunday (June 18).

Thunderstorms will gather as a result of spiking temperatures “from the night of Saturday, June 17 to Sunday, June 18, across the Atlantic coast and the Pays Basque”, said meteorologist Yann Amice to actu.fr.

High temperatures

Temperatures will remain high, forecasters say. The mercury will hover around or exceed 30C in several regions over the weekend, including in the east on June 18.

Mr Amice said: “Warm air from the Sahara could push the mercury even higher, then an Atlantic low will push in, bringing with it colder air at higher altitudes which will trigger the thunderstorms from this weekend onwards.”

Record June

June 2023 is set to be among the top three hottest in the country since 1930 (along with 2003, 2017, and 2022), with the current average national temperature around 2.5C higher than the norm for the first 10 days of the month so far, said Météo France.

Drought and groundwater levels

It comes as France is experiencing drought conditions and times of low groundwater levels. Even heavy rain in the summer months is not as useful as one might expect, as the water tends to be taken up by the plants, rather than seep into the underground water table.

The north of France particularly has seen a significant lack of rain, with the Paris-Montsouris station not having recorded rain for 26 days in the north of France, from May 16 to June 10. The thunderstorms of June 11 brought just 4.4 mm of rain, Météo France said.

And in Lille and Strasbourg, no rain of more than 1mm has been recorded since May 16.

In recent weeks, the north of Europe has been caught in a ‘blocked’ situation, caused by an anticyclone pressure centred over the British Isles and the north of France, causing a lack of rain, and storms in much of southern France and southern Europe.

As a result of the dry weather last year and continuing into this year, two-thirds of groundwater table levels in France are currently under the norms for the season, Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Béchu has highlighted. This puts much of the country at high risk of drought this summer.

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