Storms lash France for Christmas

VIOLENT storms with winds of more than 100kph are expected to lash the west of France and the length of the Channel coast at the start of next week, washing out any hope of a white Christmas.

Forecasters at Météo France say Monday and the next few days could see rainstorms gusting up to 120kph over an area from the Vendée to south Brittany and the Channel.

They do not exclude gusts of up to 150kph on Christmas Day, echoing the violent storm that lashed France in 1999 when winds of more than 170kph struck.

Last night winds that had battered Scotland with gusts of up to 176kph were also touching Brittany where winds of 97kph hit Brest and gusts reaching 122kph were recorded at Pointe du Raz.

The storm front is on a line from the Pays-Basque up to Lorraine and is moving south-east and will hit the Côte d’Azur this afternoon with heavy rains of up to 50mm this weekend.

Early this morning La Chaine Météo noted rainfall of between 5 and 155mm in the north, with 8mm at Beauvais, 10mm at Nantes and 11mm at Charleville-Mézières in Ardennes – with milder, less stormy weather arriving.

After the unusually mild first half of December temperatures are set to plummet from around December 27 or 28 across the whole of France. However, there is not likely to be any snow on low-lying areas and the heavy rains will only turn to heavy snow in the mountains.

Météo France said that strong high-pressure anticyclonic conditions meant a cold and sunny start to December across much of the country, but this was now changing to more stormy conditions with a depression centred on Scotland and Ireland.

After Christmas the high-altitude jetstream will move south over the Atlantic and cross England along the length of the Channel coast bringing storms across France.

Graphic: LaChaineMétéo.com