Snow warning for many departments
One-third of France on Orange alert for heavy snowfalls and black ice – with some school buses cancelled
ALL OF France was covered by weather alerts today as forecasters issued an Orange severe snow and black ice alert over one-third of the country and Yellow elsewhere.
At the start of the morning 27 departments were on Orange alert but by 10.00 this had reduced to 18. The south-west Pyrenees was affected and a band from the centre of the country up to the north-east. The rest of France is under Yellow alert with people told to be aware of changing conditions.
In Ile-de-France lorries are restricted to a maximum of 80kph and banned from overtaking. Lorries are also banned from the N118, which serves the industrial and commercial areas of Vélizy-Villacoublay and Courtabœuf.
The Paris area got its first snow last night with nearly 3cm in some areas and in Lille the bus service was halted – with school buses also halted today in Ardennes, Somme and Aisne.
Through the night a band of snow swept across the north and then moved east, dropping up to 10cm in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie and up to 8cm in Ile-de-France.
By this morning, the snow was reaching Champagne-Ardennes, Lorraine, Burgundy and Auvergne and is heading for Alsace, Franche-Comté and Rhône-Alpes, with up to 10cm expected.
In the Pyrenees, heavy snows led to avalanche alerts in Haute-Garonne, Ariège, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées – with heavy rains also meaning a flood alert was issued for the latter two departments
Road safety group Bison Futé warned that the snow could turn icy, leading to severe problems for drivers.
