Storm warning after weekend's reminder of summer

Following a warm autumn weekend, in which some areas of France basked in 32C sunshine, parts of the country have been placed on alert for storms.

In its mid-morning bulletin, national weather forecaster Météo France placed 42 departments on orange alert for violent storms which are predicted to hit this afternoon.

The warning said that heavy rain, strong winds - gusting up to 110kph in some places - and electrical storms were due from 2pm on Monday, as a weather system sweeps in from Aquitaine and spread northeast to affect the Charentes, Poitou, western Limousin, central and southern Pays-de-la-Loire.

The storms will continue into the evening and overnight, the forecaster warned.

The departments covered by Météo France's warning are:

Aisne, Aveyron, Bouches-du-Rhône, Corrèze, Eure, Gard, Hérault, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais, Paris and the 'petite couronne' departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, Seine-Maritime, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Somme, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Vaucluse, Essonne and Val-d'Oise.

They were added to the following 17 departments which were placed on alert in Météo France's early morning bulletin: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Cher, Dordogne, Eure-et-Loir, Gironde, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Landes, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Maine-et-Loire, Orne, Sarthe, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, and Haute-Vienne.