Mercury continues to climb Tuesday in most of France, with more than half of the country on orange alert at two days of the expected peak of this unprecedented heat wave for a month of June.
If the weather will be still unstable in the north-west, the weather will be dry and very hot elsewhere, warns Meteo France which placed in vigilance orange 53 departments, including those of the Ile-de-France, Grand-Est, Bourgogne-Franche regions -Comté, Center-Val-de-Loire and part of the southwest.
Temperatures are still up one notch Tuesday: 34 ° C expected in Paris and Reims, 36 ° C in Nancy, Metz, Strasbourg, 37 ° C in Lyon, 39 ° C in Grenoble. The 40 ° C bar could be reached between the lower Rhone valley and alpine valleys. Wednesday, we should have 40 ° C in Besançon, Nevers, and 41 ° C in Clermont-Ferrand or Lyon.
Nights will also be hot, with temperatures not falling below 19 ° C to 23 °, even 25 in large cities. In Paris it was 22.6 ° C Tuesday at 05h.
The end of the episode, whose peak is expected Thursday and Friday, is envisaged Sunday by the northwest, a more temperate air gradually gaining the country.
Meanwhile, this heat pushes the inhabitants to look for the dark corners. Television and radio broadcast messages of caution, relayed in transport and on billboards.
– Give up the tie –
While some members of the opposition accuse the government of “doing too much”, the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn has assumed this mobilization.
“For all those who know, obviously we do too much, but if I can avoid unnecessary deaths, I continue to communicate on prevention,” she said on LCI.
The minister explained that she would “advise” her male colleagues in the government to temporarily give up the tie.
“The air conditioning protects you but it participates in global warming, it uses electricity and so we have better not be too air-conditioned and change our dress code,” she argued.
According to an international study published on Monday, global warming will generate increased energy needs, especially for air conditioners, from +25 to + 60% by the middle of the century.
While the peaks of ozone pollution are favored by the heat, the Minister of Ecological Transition François de Rugy announced a reform of the triggering of alternating traffic in Ile-de-France, “automated” in case of exceeding the limit thresholds for air pollutants.
The device will be stricter, since, in addition to the vehicles Crit’Air 5 and 4, those with a vignette Crit’Air 3 (gasoline cars registered before the end of 2005 and diesel registered before the end of 2010) will not be able to circulate these days.
This new device could be tested very quickly, since the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo asked the prefect of police this differentiated circulation for Wednesday, which according to Airparif should see the “threshold of information of the public” reached for pollution with ozone .
On Monday, the government announced the postponement of a few days of college patent tests that were to take place on Thursday and Friday, to “ensure the safety of students.”
This heat wave from the Sahara brings back the memory of the August 2003 episode, which had generated an excess mortality of 15,000 people over more than 15 days (more than 70,000 in Europe).
This is an episode unprecedented in its intensity and precocity since 1947 and the establishment of detailed records, says Météo-France.
– Peaks everywhere –
From the middle of the week, records will be established for a month of June or “locally all months”. The hottest day will be Thursday or Friday.
The heat wave, which involves at least three days and three nights beyond a certain temperature threshold (different depending on the region), should extend beyond the weekend at least over a large half of the south-east , according to Météo-France. No region should be spared, including the northwest at the end of the week.
“Heat islands”, cities suffer particularly, because of concrete floors, the lack of trees and the intensity of human activities.
The authorities remind people of the need to drink water regularly, to wet the body and to protect the skin. The information platform “Canicule info service” is available on 0800 06 66 66 (toll free number).
Everywhere we organize. Farmers must be particularly vigilant for the health of their animals. Others fear that drought will affect fodder.
In transport, such as SNCF or RATP, this heat involves very closely monitoring equipment and infrastructure, including power cables, catenaries and tracks.
In the building industry representatives announced the shift in the hours of workers.
Cafetiers, on the other hand, smile, with a foreseeable increase in turnover of at least 30%.
Consumption of electricity will be “important”, has already warned the manager of the high-voltage network RTE, which expects a “potential peak of summer consumption Thursday at 13h”, without fear, however, a supply disruption.
With global warming, scientists anticipate heat waves two to three times more numerous by mid-century.
