22 departments are placed in vigilance orange snow and ice this Friday by Météo France. 11 new departments are therefore added to the 11 which were already on snow-ice orange vigilance from Thursday until Saturday morning.
These are Ain, Allier, Ariège, Aveyron, Cantal, Corrèze, Haute-Garonne, Isère, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes- Pyrenees and Haute-Vienne.
The North, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Calvados, Orne, Seine-Maritime, Eure, Loire, Haute-Loire, Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme were already on the alert orange.
Snowy episode “unusual for an early spring”
Winter has come back in force with a big drop in temperatures almost everywhere in France, they tumbled regarding ten degrees in places. A few flakes have already appeared north of the Loire as well as on the heights of the Massif Central indicates Météo France, which forecasts a gradual improvement from East to West from the end of Friday morning.
From 3 to 5 cm of snow are expected, with locally regarding ten centimeters. The episode is described by Météo-France as “unusual for an early spring, noticeable enough to disrupt traffic and some economic activities“.
The snowfall has “reached Haute-Normandie and the departments of Hauts-de-France”, where the improvement will be gradual from east to west from the end of the morning. He “already snowing all over the Massif Central“, also notes Météo France in its morning bulletin on Friday. In the Alps, the snow ends up replacing the rain on Friday morning above 500m. A few centimeters in the plain are expected in Ain and Isère, and up to 20 cm in Chartreuse and Vercors, according to Météo-France.
In the Massif Central, the snowfall weakened during the morning, then strengthened on Friday evening and persisted on Saturday. In the Pyrenees, “we expect 2 to 5 cm around 400/500m, 7 to 15 cm locally 20/25cm around 800/1000m and 15/30cm locally 50cm around 1,500/1,800m“, notes Meteo France.
In the Pas-de-Calais, the prefecture decided to suspend school transport on Friday between midnight and 2 p.m. The circulation of vehicles of more than 7.5 tons will also be prohibited on all the roads of the department, except the motorways. The Hauts-de-France region has suspended school and intercity bus transport which it organizes in the territories of Pas-de-Calais and Somme and part of the North.
