Heat wave: a 4th heat wave next week?

New alert on the weather front: the thermometer is still likely to get carried away across France next week.

“After the cooling started by the North-West, along the English Channel, the heat wave may start again from Saturday, this is what our weather stations indicate which serve us as a reference in about thirty cities”, alert Christelle Robert of Météo France, contacted this Thursday, August 4.

According to the forecaster "from Sunday, the temperatures will start to rise again and a new heat peak is possible at the end of next week".

It is between Wednesday August 10 and Friday August 12 that this peak should occur, with maximum temperatures of around 35 to 40 ° C, including in Brittany, the Paris Basin or even Hauts-de-France, according to some weather patterns.

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A fourth wave or rather the third which drags on?

The third heatwave episode of this summer began at the start of the week and shifted this Thursday to eastern France where Météo France forecast up to 36°C in Strasbourg and 38°C in Lyon.

Twenty-six departments placed in orange vigilance from Wednesday, at the peak of this new episode, are still there, even if some sometimes stormy showers were expected overnight from Thursday to Friday.

A severe drought with serious consequences

These high temperatures are coupled with severe drought.

July 2022 is "the second driest month of all months combined" in France since the start of measurements in 1958-1959, with a cumulative aggregate rainfall of 9.7 mm, according to Météo France.

The driest month on record so far was March 1961 with 7.8mm.

The consequences are serious for many sectors.

EDF could be forced to further lower its production of nuclear electricity in the coming days, and even to stop a reactor at the Tricastin power station (Drôme), due to the high temperatures of the rivers.

EDF also warned of possible "production restrictions" at the Saint-Alban (Isère) plant, on the Rhône, or at that of Golfech (Tarn-et-Garonne), on the Garonne.

Read alsoDrought: France must urgently learn to live with less and less water

Another sector in great suffering: agriculture.

“We had chronologically or almost the swine crisis, the avian flu, the Ukrainian crisis, the frost and the hail and comes the drought… Over twelve months we had the summary of what we have over five or ten years”, has summarized Minister Marc Fesneau in an interview with AFP.

"Agriculture is one of the first victims of climate change", he stressed, believing that "what we have this year is the typical year that we will have in 2050".

Since 1947, forty-five heat waves have been recorded in France.

But these waves "have been significantly more numerous in recent decades", according to Météo France.

“Over the last thirty-five years, they have been three times more numerous than over the previous thirty-five years.

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