Weather: Orange heatwave alert maintained in the south-east, improvement elsewhere

Only the south-east and certain departments of France will still be on orange heat wave alert during the day on Sunday, the rest of the country now being in yellow or green, Météo-France announced on Saturday. From 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, the departments of western France and Ile-de-France still on orange alert will all return to yellow, or even green, indicates the forecaster in his 4:00 p.m. bulletin. This improvement in weather conditions led the Paris police headquarters to lift as of 10:00 p.m. Saturday “all emergency measures aimed at reducing the concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere” linked to an episode of ozone pollution in Ile-de-France. Orange vigilance will, however, be maintained all day in almost the entire south-east, underlines Météo-France. It will be lifted at 10:00 p.m. in the departments of Lorraine, Alsace, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, with the exception of Saône-et-Loire and Jura. Skip ad The drop in temperatures that began since the peak on Thursday and Friday extends eastward on Sunday, always with the exception of the southeastern quarter, where there will be a “continuation of heatwave conditions until the middle of next week.” Furthermore, Météo-France warns, “stormy developments are expected in the southwest” at the end of Saturday afternoon, “from storms developing in the south of the Massif Central and the east of the Pyrenees”. “These more virulent storms will be triggered in the Albigensian region then the north-east of the Toulouse plain and will spread westwards through Agenais, Gers, Quercy, Périgord to end in Landes and Gironde”. “The location of the strongest storm cells remains to be refined,” adds Météo-France, “but locally the gusts could reach 80 to 90 km/h, with sometimes strong accumulations over an hour (30 to 50 mm), and small hail.” “The risk of switching to orange vigilance is now low but has not yet been completely ruled out in the event that a storm cell gains more strength,” underlines the forecaster.