Orange heatwave alert: Vaucluse joins six other southern departments

The south of France is overheating. From midday, Saturday September 5, Vaucluse will join the six departments already placed on orange "heatwave" vigilance by Météo-France, bringing their number to seven. Already affected, since Friday, are Ardèche, Aude, Drôme, Gard, Hérault and the Pyrénées-Orientales. In a press release, the forecasting institute announced that it had already recorded "unprecedented temperatures for the month of September (...) around the Mediterranean", as well as in the South-West and in the Alps.

“This Saturday morning at 5 a.m., temperatures are particularly high in Roussillon and Aude, with nearly 30°C in Perpignan and 26°C in Narbonne,” wrote the forecaster in his morning bulletin. “This afternoon, the maximum temperatures will drop a few degrees in the South-West” compared to Friday, but “will remain very high in Languedoc and the Rhône valley with 36 to 38°C (locally 39 to 40°C in the interior of Languedoc)”. These heat conditions should continue throughout the day on Sunday, before a cooling forecast from the west from Monday. In the northern half of the country, temperatures will remain below 35°C all weekend, specifies Météo-France.