Devastating fires, repeated heat waves, record drought… Météo France on Tuesday takes stock of a destructive summer but which could quickly become the norm under the effects of climate change.
Result: the summer of 2022 is the second hottest summer after 2003, according to figures that the meteorological organization will officially reveal at the end of the afternoon.
During the period which covers the months of June, July and August, the thermometer indicated 22.67 degrees on average, against 23.10 degrees on average in 2003.
The detailed summary of the summer readings will not be revealed until 5 p.m., but Météo France has already confirmed that the summer of 2022 was marked by several temperature records.
Like these “exceptional series” of consecutive hot days (more than 25°C), for example in Marseille since May 9, i.e. already 113 days, leaving far behind the previous record of 102 days in 2018. In Strasbourg the series has lasted since July 11, already 50 days.
Three episodes of heat wave in France
In Nice, Monday, there were 60 consecutive "tropical nights", that is to say with a temperature not falling below 20 degrees, which makes physical recovery particularly difficult.
The previous record, 58 nights, dated from 2016. A phenomenon attributed by Météo France to “the influence of a high Mediterranean temperature”.
Because the Big Blue has also suffered from a wave of marine heat, “4 to 5 degrees” above normal temperatures, threatening marine ecosystems.
Read alsoMarine heat wave: the Mediterranean Sea is warming up and this is not good news
Almost the entire country suffocated under three episodes of heat wave, the first in June.
In total, 33 days of heat waves were observed over the summer, an unprecedented total.
Many absolute heat records have been shattered, even in the northwest of the country, which is no longer a refuge of coolness protected by the ocean.
The thermometer reached 39.3°C in July at the tip of Brittany, in Brest, and 40.4°C in the Norman port of Dieppe.
Combined with the lack of rain, the heat favored the drought that affects almost the entire country and made the vegetation particularly flammable.
Holidaymakers have observed a dark season of forest fires with 62,000 hectares ravaged since the beginning of the year, against an average of 8,500 at the same time, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System ( EFFIS).
"An Average Mid-Century Summer"
The country has experienced unusual fires, such as that of Landiras, in the south of the Gironde, which burned more than 20,000 hectares in two sets.
And fires even in places that we did not imagine exposed, such as the mythical Breton forest of Brocéliande.
Public opinion was again marked by impressive stormy episodes which killed five people in Corsica on August 18.
If such exceptional weather phenomena are not directly attributable to climate change, it increases their intensity and frequency according to climatologists.
And such a summer could look like "an average summer in the middle of the century", if the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for warming do not drop sharply, according to the models of Météo France.
The fight against climate change therefore punctuates much of the start of the school year, from debates on private jets or swimming pools to statements by members of the executive, accused of not doing enough by the left-wing opposition and environmental NGOs.