Storm alert now for 13 departments

THIRTEEN departments in the north of France have been put on orange alert for violent thunderstorms after the short early-summer heat wave saw record temperatures in parts of the country.

Météo France says residents in Nord - Pas-de-Calais, Picardie and Ile-de-France regions should expect hail and violent winds gusting up to 100kph this afternoon between 15.00 and 19.00.

Departments in the north and east of France, from Vendée up to Calvados and down to Alpes-Maritimes, are also on yellow alert as storm clouds build up and move from west to east, with the storms possibly starting in Normandy.

Storms will be very localised in the earlier part of the day and temperatures are expected to remain high outside the storm zone.

Yesterday saw record temperatures in Aquitaine, Limousin, Pays-de-la-Loire and Rhône-Alpes and today are due to be from 19-25C along the Channel coast, between 29-33C in the rest of the country but 34-36 in Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne.

The government has denied it launched its canicule national heatwave plan yesterday, saying it was only reminding people of what measures to take. The heatwave plan is a set of measures put in place since the 2003 heatwave when 15,000 people died. Since June 1 France has been on level 1 of the five-level alert.

Today’s tennis semi-finals at Roland Garros in Paris are expected to be played in intense sunshine and high temperatures up to 33C – but this will not be the first time players have played in the heat, as temperatures this year in Melbourne hit 40C.

The Huffington Post website even remembered a tweet from French star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (who today plays Swiss Stan Wawrinka) from Melbourne last year of a fan frying an egg by the courtside...

Spare a thought, however, for the ballboys – clad in black for event sponsors BNP Paribas.
Weather map graphic: Meteo France