The heat wave officially affects more than half of France – Le Monde

The temperature keeps on climbing in France, and with it, the number of departments placed in orange alert by Météo France.

For the third hot day, Thursday, July 2, more than half of the French departments were placed on alert. The orange alert now concerns 51 departments, four more than the day before:

• The new departments are followed Ardèche, Drôme, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne
• The orange alert was already in force in Alsace, Auvergne, Burgundy, Champagne-Ardenne, Franche-Comté Ile-de-France, Limousin, Lorraine and in Ain, Aisne, Cher, Dordogne, Indre, Isère, Loire, Loiret, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, the North, the Rhone, Savoie and Haute-Savoie.

Read also: How the national heat wave plan does it work?

On Wednesday, the temperature records were broken in Roissy, Nemours, Troyes, Evreux, Beauvais, Rouen, Amiens Lisieux, Dieppe, Boulogne-sur-Mer, where Melun … fountains were made of assault by small and large, shady lawns and public gardens, prized. The episode heatwave has meant an increase in emergency calls.

Paris was just under 40 ° C, 39.7 ° C, the highest temperature in the capital since 1947. The heat wave has caused a breakdown in the power supply in the middle of the afternoon near the Gare Saint-Lazare, where traffic was “greatly disturbed” for about an hour, according to SNCF .

Which temperatures can one speak of “heat wave”?

By definition, the term heat wave when temperatures observed amounted day and night for three days straight. “The more hot weather on the day, the more fatigue. More it’s hot night, less is recovered “ says Meteo France.

The meteorological agency has determined alert threshold from thirty years of daily data of mortality and different weather indicators. He compares them to biometeorological indicators calculated from daily minimum and maximum temperatures, according to its forecasts.

The various regions of France being more or less used and therefore adapted to heat, thresholds Alerts are not the same everywhere. Thus, Météo France believes that the heat wave will be proven in the Deux-Sèvres where minimum temperatures of 35 ° C day and 20 ° C at night will be observed. Haute-Loire, it will be considered during a heat wave when temperatures exceed 32 ° C during the day and 18 ° C at night. In Paris, these thresholds are 31 ° C day and 21 ° C at night, or in Marseille 35 ° C day and 24 ° C at night

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