Weather: five southeastern departments on orange alert for thunderstorms

After heatwaves, beware of thunder. Météo-France placed five departments in the south-east of France on orange alert for thunderstorms this Thursday in its morning weather forecast. These are Var and Alpes-Maritimes, from 1 p.m., then Ardèche, Drôme and Isère which will pass this alert threshold at 3 p.m. “After the strong heat still present during the day on Wednesday”, Météo-France predicts a “stormy episode requiring particular vigilance, in particular due to high accumulations expected over short periods”.

Several bursts of storms, sometimes strong, will follow one another between this Thursday afternoon and this Friday morning. “These storms may not be very mobile and lead to significant accumulations. Hail, strong gusts and significant electrical activity are also expected,” warns Météo France. A calm is expected in the second part of the night from Thursday to Friday.

Corsica will go into orange “thunderstorms” alert at 6 a.m. Friday morning: an episode “likely to be accompanied by occasional violent phenomena (gusts, heavy rainfall) requiring […] particular attention,” warns the meteorological institute.