Prepare for a hot night tonight

TONIGHT could be the hottest and hardest of the heatwave so far, with more than half of France facing temperatures above 25C.

Today 51 departments from the south-west to the north-east are on orange canicule alert with only the Mediterranean coast being spared intense heat. The latest departments to be added are Ardèche, Drôme, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne.

Clouds this morning from Brittany along the Channel coast will spark cloudbursts and the risk of thunderstorms later spreading down to the southern Alps. Some storms are already affecting Poitou-Charentes and Limousin.

Maximum temperatures are expected to be up to 29C on the Atlantic and Channel coasts, with a band of temperatures up to 35C spreading from Pays-de-la-Loire across Paris to the Ardennes and up to 39C, locally 40C, from the south-west to the eastern centre at Lyon.

There will be little let-up from the heat this weekend with high temperatures continuing through into next week, but probably not at canicule level of very hot days and unremitting nights.

Météo France forecaster François Gourand told La Voix du Nord that he expected the three months of June, July and August to be hotter than normal across France.

June had already been 1.5C warmer than the average – a trend that has been growing since 2000. It was matched by a 50% reduction in average rainfall across Brittany, Centre, Ile-de-France and Picardie, but not in the south-east, where it rained more. June saw a record 303 hours of sun in Paris: the previous record was 273 hours in 2006.

Yum: Heatwave drinks
http://t.co/NRlFKhXVZC pic.twitter.com/ywvNKvTX2n— Ken Seaton (@apriliaken) July 3, 2015

Paris mairie has decided to open five large parks to allow people to escape the city heat tonight and tomorrow night. They are Buttes-Chaumont (19th), Martin-Luther-King (27th), Montsouris (14th), Monceau (8th) and André-Citroën (15th). The council’s ecology group said the parks could be 3C cooler than the rest of the city, which was warm due to the ‘urban heat island’ effect.

Rail travellers are continuing to face problems as the intense heat forces trains to slow down – at 30C air temperature the rails can be 45C and high temperatures can also lead to the power lines stretching and perhaps touching the train, with a danger to passengers: so trains must go slower. (See this video – in French – from SNCF to see how the problem arises: www.youtube.com)

The Tour de France starts tomorrow in the Netherlands in Utrecht and the racers say they are not really concerned about the heatwave. French favourite Thibaut Pinot told Le Dauphiné the first week was on the flat and would not be a problem but it would be “a different matter if it is 40C in the Pyrenées or Alps, as I do not like the heat!”

People should continue to take precautions against heatstroke and drink plenty of water (not sugary drinks, which can dehydrate). See our article yesterday for help on how to get a good night's sleep despite the heat - www.connexionfrance.com

Twitter users, as usual, have come up with different ways of looking at the heatwave:

#Canicule2015 : des températures aussi chaudes à Paris qu'à Dubaï, par @LeParisienInfog http://t.co/8BbW82XUwP pic.twitter.com/JK9EE7G6fn— Le Parisien (@le_Parisien) July 2, 2015

#Zgur_Music #canicule
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
https://t.co/TW6vIN0qpD— Zgur_ (@Zgur_) July 3, 2015

#Canicule : des records de température battus... et d'autres à venir ? ► http://t.co/tCAPbI5xtV pic.twitter.com/qOzURyzdYW— France Inter (@franceinter) July 2, 2015

Canicule pic.twitter.com/7wfhjAR5PH— Lasourcedustyle.com (@lasourcedustyle) July 2, 2015