Flood Alerts Lifted: Let’s Make Sense of the Wet and Wild Weather in France!
Well, well, well! It appears the skies above France have finally decided to stop their ceaseless crying. Météo-France has graciously announced that no department is now on orange alert for floods. That’s right, folks! It’s like a cue for the weather gods to take a vacation. No more panic, folks. Just your regular French day without the added accompaniment of a water feature!
Now, don’t get too comfortable just yet. Let’s rewind to the weekend when the Gironde region was feeling a bit too cozy with its rivers, the Garonne and the Dordogne. They decided to throw a bit of a party and overflowed—gently, mind you—just enough to raise alarm bells but not quite enough for the firefighters to don their flashy pants and rush in.
“Excesses expected in Bordeaux!” they warned. But I thought that’s just what Bordeaux is all about—delightfully excessive wine and food experiences! Talk about an uninvited guest crashing the party, eh?
Despite the Garonne bursting its banks—because clearly it wanted some attention—the flooding was contained to a few quays. Imagine the quays lamenting, “Oh no, not again! This isn’t the wet t-shirt contest we signed up for!” I suppose it’s safe to say that the emergency services had a relatively quiet evening. Who knew their biggest challenge would be ensuring no one stepped into a puddle and got their shoes wet?
Ah, but over in the Center-East, it was a different story. Emergency services were working like hedge fund managers during a stock market crash, with a staggering 2,300 interventions during what was deemed the most violent weather episode in the Cévennes “in 40 years.” It’s always great when Mother Nature flexes her muscles like she’s auditioning for a superhero role, isn’t it?
Of course, let’s not forget the torrential rains that fell upon Ardèche, amounting to a whopping 600 to 700 mm. For those of you who don’t think in millimeters of rain, that’s like trying to drown a fish – unusually wet! And while three minor injuries were reported (thankfully, no fatalities!), there was an oddly tragic tale from Paris where a tree decided to play a very dangerous game of musical chairs. Spoiler alert: it didn’t end well, and a family was affected, highlighting that sometimes, you really don’t want to go tree-hugging in the rain.
In conclusion, while we celebrate that Météo-France has finally deemed it safe to put those emergency alert stickers away, let’s all take a breath. Disasters show us who we are, and one thing’s for sure: we can’t control the weather, but we can certainly make a toast to the sun when it finally breaks through! So grab that wine and celebrate the return of the calm, my friends!
It’s just another wild ride in the life of French weather. So, until next time, keep your umbrellas handy and your spirits high, because when it rains, it pours—but it looks like this time, we’ll be left with just the sunshine.
No longer is any department on orange alert for floods, announced Météo-France, which lifted that of the Gironde on Sunday morning where the Garonne and the Dordogne overflowed slightly without causing damage.
The department was on alert Saturday evening and excesses were expected in Bordeaux, according to the weather forecasting organization and the prefecture.
As is usually the case at each high equinox tide, the Garonne burst its banks from 9:00 p.m., flooding a few quays, without requiring the intervention of the firefighters.
Friday morning, the red flood alert had been lifted in the last four departments concerned (Rhône, Loire, Haute-Loire and Lozère) and 18 departments in the southern half were still subject to orange flood or rain alert. -flooding before these are also lifted.
In the Center-East, emergency services carried out 2,300 interventions during the bad weather considered to be the most violent episode in the Cévennes “in 40 years”, according to Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
The torrential rains, which reached 600 to 700 mm in certain areas of Ardèche, caused three minor injuries in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. In Paris, a tree fell on a family, whose father did not survive, without the link with the bad weather being formally established.