France is able to breathe again. The 51st heat wave to hit metropolitan France since 1947 ended on Monday, August 18, following eleven days of extreme temperatures. Rain and storms sweeping in from the west brought the weather alerts down from red to green. The spell of intense heat, described as “unprecedented,” was one of the most severe to hit the southern part of the country, alongside the historic August 2003 event, according to the Météo-France report published Wednesday. It was also the second-longest August heat wave, after the sixteen-day event in 2003.
However, when considering the entire country, the recent heat wave was far less severe than in 2003. “France was split in two. The northern half was relatively spared, although temperatures frequently reached 35°C,” said Christine Berne, a climatologist at Météo-France. In Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Carcassonne, average maximum temperatures were 1°C to 2°C higher than in 2003, while in Strasbourg and Paris, they were 3°C to 4°C cooler. Across France, the intensity of the recent heat wave was comparable to those of August 2023, July 2022, or July-August 2018.
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