In Variscourt (Aisne), Baptiste Letillois, believed that the sky was going to fall on his head.
Saturday evening, while he was bringing in some hay, the young man just had time to capture in a snapshot the impressive storm that was going to hit his village.
An arcus responsible for serious damage a few kilometers away, in the streets of Reims and in many departments.
“We did not know what was going to happen to us,” he breathes, reached by phone on Sunday.
Around 8:30 p.m. the day before, he saw the sky turn gray then black before a surrealist cloud began to threaten his house.
“I had never seen this in my life.
We had time to get to safety before things got out of hand, ”he says.
Impressed by the show, he takes a photo for his brother, who works at Météo France.
"He found that monstrous," says Baptiste.
A few moments later, "the monster" precisely defeats his anger: torrential rains, responsible for mudslides and falling trees in the village.
Arrival of the # arcus accompanying the violent #storm which caused #floods on #Reims this evening.
https://t.co/tMD05fGEMa
- The Weather Channel (@lachainemeteo) June 19, 2021
In Reims, several streets were flooded and more than 1,800 homes were deprived of electricity in the surrounding area.
No train could run between Paris and Châlons-en-Champagne.
Trees on the track and catenary failures paralyzed traffic.
Passengers were stranded for long hours on the tracks before being repatriated to Paris around 11 p.m., the Union newspaper indicates.
This Sunday morning, some 5,000 customers were still without electricity, mainly in the departments of Marne, Seine-et-Marne, and Aisne, according to Enedis, who indicated at midday that a return to normal is in progress.
The city of #Reims in the Marne again hit by #floods, the 2nd time in 15 days!
https://t.co/4UuejgezpG
- The Weather Channel (@lachainemeteo) June 19, 2021
"The storm which took place on Reims, it is a line of squalls which traveled several hundred kilometers, it is the same one which touched the Ile-de-France and the Pays de la Loire", specifies meteorologist Guillaume Séchet.
This so-called “supercell” storm is the result of a standoff between a mass of cool air coming from the Atlantic and hot air coming up from the Mediterranean.
Its most visible form: an arcus, a huge cloud in the sky, just before the onset of bad weather.
28 departments in orange vigilance
“It often gives the impression of a steamroller coming.
It is the cold air that descends and pushes the cloud down.
These are enormous storm clouds, in the shape of an arc, which sometimes cover several hundred kilometers and can travel the same distance, ”continues Guillaume Séchet.
Since the start of the weekend, few French people have escaped the torrential rains caused by this significant stormy degradation.
In total, nearly 50 departments were placed on thunderstorm alert on Saturday.
At the end of the afternoon, a 600 square meter roof of a five-story apartment building located in Alfortville (Val-de-Marne) flew onto the building next door, causing two minor injuries. .
To read also "I really could have died": in the Val-de-Marne, the violent storm caused heavy damage
In Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil (Indre-et-Loire), a village renowned for its vineyards, the church tower fell into the nave on Saturday after the passage of a "very local" tornado.
This Sunday 28 departments are still in orange vigilance.
Lightning should mainly strike from the Massif Central to the northeast.