After the heat wave, watch out for thunderstorms

While Joe Biden and Vladimir Poutine were playing the card of appeasement in Switzerland, the beginnings of a new East-West conflict were brewing in France.

But on the side of the sky this time.

"Between the fresh air coming from the West and the hot air which reigns in the East, France is located in full conflict of mass of air from the South-West to the North-West", explains the forecaster Guillaume Séchet.

The violent thunderstorms that have crossed France since Wednesday, June 16 in the evening illustrate the consequences of this aerial combat born of a hot air-cold air opposition.

“After a first stormy salvo on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, we will experience four successive ones until Sunday,” adds the meteorologist.

The equivalent of a month of rain in a few hours

Enough to shower the enthusiasm of those who were planning a barbecue this weekend.

"France will remain at the heart of this conflict between the hot air coming up from North Africa to central Europe and the cooler air arriving by the Atlantic", explains Cyrille Duchesne, of the Météo channel.

As of this Thursday afternoon, Météo France saw a "new rainstorm episode requiring special vigilance".

"Thunderstorms sometimes violent will develop in the southwest of the country, occasionally giving very strong accumulations of rain (of the order of 50 to 80 mm in three hours), and may be accompanied by hail, strong gusts. wind of around 80 to 100 km / h locally and sustained electrical activity.

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"In places, it can fall the equivalent of a month of rain in the space of a few hours", confirms Guillaume Séchet.

After the first stormy salvo that swept through Ile-de-France on Wednesday night, streaking the sky with lightning and making thunder roar, Météo France expects “strong thunderstorms” in the Paris region on Friday morning, but also in the Somme, Normandy and the Pays de la Loire.

"The heat will definitely go down"

The rest can be summed up in one word: unstable.

This will be the key word for this weekend with "a few periods of lulls and dry weather, but also new violent showers of a stormy nature circulating from the southwest to the north and east of the country" specifies the meteorologist of the weather channel.

Good news, however: Cyrille Duchesne believes that it will be "much cooler over two-thirds of France".

“We had the hottest day on Wednesday and even if it could still be 28 ° C on Saturday in Paris, the heat will definitely drop again,” confirms Guillaume Séchet.

Then, the fresh air will even gain the upper hand and we should experience a gloomy start to the week over a large northern half of the country.

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