Saturday evening on the Calvados coast, many locals and tourists were still passing through enjoying the beach in the strong summer heat, when a storm as violent as it was sudden surprised them.
These gusts of wind caused a tragedy, since a kitesurfer died in Villers-sur-Mer, after being thrown against the window of a restaurant.
This unexpected meteorological phenomenon, which had not been announced and which "
lasted 20 to 25 minutes
" according to the prefecture, also caused "
5 injured in relative emergency and hospitalized
", informed the town hall of Villers-sur-Mer on his Facebook page.
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On social networks, several videos of this particularly impressive meteorological episode on the Channel coasts have circulated.
We see for example, on the beach of Deauville, a crowd of people running to find shelter, while the wind carries everything in its path and raises clouds of sand.
Same scenes in Villers-sur-Mer, Trouville or Ouistreham.
In Cabourg, this sudden gust of wind disrupted the Film Festival, reports
Ouest-France
.
The red carpet ceremony was interrupted after the storm brought down the metal barriers.
So what is this phenomenon?
A “
gust front
”, as meteorologist Guillaume Séchet calls it.
This is explained by “
the enormous thermal shock between the cool air which descended from the British Isles and the very hot air which persists on the continent
”.
The wind, for example, reached 100 km / h in Fécamp, in Seine-Maritime, indicates
La Chaîne Météo *
.
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It is “
almost the same phenomenon that we observed on Saturday at the end of the day in the South-West
”, underlines the founder of Météo-cities.
Either a violent wind accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature.
In Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), the temperature thus fell from 42.9°C to 23.6°C at the start of the evening, according to
La Chaîne Météo
.
A phenomenon "
characteristic of the south-east of the Bay of Biscay
", notes
Météo France
, and which is locally called a "
coup de galerne
".
*The Weather Channel is a property of the Figaro group.
