New weather records and the Ophelia effect

Several long-standing temperature records were broken in France over the weekend - though the mercury will start to fall from Wednesday, forecasters have warned.

Records dating back 25 years were broken in Colmar, Haut-Rhin, where temperatures reached 27.6C on Sunday, beating the October record of 26.5C from October 14, 1990, as Storm Ophelia, which battered Ireland on Monday, pushed tropical air over France as it travelled north from the Azores.

Brignogan, Finistère, meanwhile, basked in 25C sunshine on Sunday, surpassing a high set on October 12, 1990.

Both were outdone by Montluçon, Allier, where the mercury stopped rising at 29.8C, more than a degree more than the 28.2C high recorded on October 18, 2014.

And while parts of northwestern France were yesterday under strange yellow skies caused by a combination of Saharan sand and soot from wildfires in Portugal carried north by Ophelia, much of the rest of the country continued to enjoy unseasonably high temperatures.

Clermont-Ferrand's 28.8C equalled the temperature record for the same period, set on October 13, 2001; while Lille's 25C has been matched just twice before - on October 12, 1990, and October 11, 1970.