Hot, hot, hot as summer arrives

SUMMER has started across the south of France – and tomorrow for everyone else – with Météo France promising “generous sunshine and warmth” for the next week or 10 days.

Temperatures into the 30s hit the Rhône valley yesterday and Météo France forecaster François Jobart told TF1News a mass of warm air would push north from Spain and Morocco tomorrow into Aquitaine, bringing 35C temperatures to Bordeaux.

Friday will see more of the same across the country, averaging 30C and a maximum of 35C in the Rhône valley and Rhône-Alpes, with Grenoble and Lyon hitting 34C.

Saturday will be a bit cooler in the north-east, with temperatures dropping 5-7C and with the possibility of thunderstorms, but still comfortably above seasonal norms with Paris at 26C instead of 22C. It will still stay high in the south.

La #MeteoDeDemain : le ciel s'éclaircit au nord, soleil et chaleur parfois forte au sud > http://t.co/9aXPknwPtU pic.twitter.com/FZlFhtFRWv— Météo-France (@meteofrance) June 2, 2015

However, hopes for a heatwave in the UK are looking slimmer after the Met Office issued severe weather warnings yesterday. Admitting it was “a pretty unsettled start to the summer" a spokesman said it would calm down appreciably with a mild weekend.

The warm weather in France is a major change from the past few chilly days and today opened with heavy skies and drizzle on the Channel coast down to Lorraine but drier weather across to Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine. It will improve this morning and will be breaking up into patchy cloud with sunshine.

On June 1 French stormchaser Nicolas Gascard of the Observatoire Français des Tornades et Orages Violents tweeted this photograph he took of an arcus or thunderstorm shelf cloud over Isère and Ain. The storm cloud was moving slowly and rain battered the departments.

Bel arcus observé hier en #Isère. Pic Nicolas Gascard pic.twitter.com/wqWx8QuA8e— Météo-France (@meteofrance) June 2, 2015