The phenomenon happened again, but the results are fortunately less dramatic.
New "widespread thunderstorms" hit Corsica overnight from Thursday to Friday, the day after a particularly violent episode that left five people dead.
The alert concerned "the western half of Corsica and Cap Corse" but also "the eastern coast", announced Météo France in a bulletin issued overnight, specifying that "thunderstorms continue to form at sea and will affect a large part of the western facade of Corsica" during the night.
Hail, gusts and waterspouts
"Under the strongest storm cells, we can observe 40 to 60 mm in less than an hour, hail, strong gusts of wind close to 80 to 100 km / h", according to Météo France which also warns against “waterspouts and whirlwind phenomena” on the coast.
The Mediterranean island, where the tourist season is in full swing, went back to orange vigilance on Thursday at 9 p.m., for a “more lasting” rainy-stormy episode than the day before.
According to a new bulletin published this Friday morning, the two Corsican departments are kept on orange alert, but the “stormy showers (…) are losing intensity”.
However, "thunderstorms continue to form at sea".
🔶 2 dpts in #vigilanceOrange
Stay informed on https://t.co/rJ24zzmmy4 pic.twitter.com/5f4wViUTKK
— VigiMeteoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) August 19, 2022
This Thursday evening, several campsites in Corse-du-Sud were evacuated in anticipation of new storms, during which "high rainfall intensities" were expected, according to Météo France.
But the gusts of wind "will be much less violent than those observed Thursday morning", measured at more than 200 km / h.
In Haute-Corse, 5,400 people "housed in the most exposed campsites (Calvi, Calenzana, Aregno, Algajola, Corbara and Monticello) have been brought to safety", detailed the prefecture in a press release.
“Rehousing operations are underway” for the evacuees, Gilles Simeoni, President of the Executive Council of Corsica, had indicated earlier.
"Stay careful"
Thursday morning, very brutal thunderstorms killed five people across the Isle of Beauty, including two at sea, a 62-year-old fisherman and a kayaker in her sixties.
A 13-year-old girl lost her life after a tree fell on her bungalow in the Sagone campsite (Corse-du-Sud).
The other victims are a 46-year-old man, who died after a tree fell on a campsite in Calvi (Haute-Corse), and a septuagenarian, killed a few kilometers from the Sagone campsite by the fall of the roof of a straw hut. on his vehicle.
Read alsoDeadly storm in Corsica: at least five dead, around twenty injured … could such a tragedy have been avoided?
During his visit to Sagone, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that a state of natural disaster could be declared as early as Wednesday.
"Tonight, stay careful," tweeted the Head of State this Thursday evening, once again expressing his "support and that of the Nation for the Corsicans who have been hard hit".
This evening, I want to re-express my support and that of the Nation for the Corsicans who have been hard hit.
I am thinking of the victims and their families.
Thank you to the rescue forces mobilized to save lives and help the affected residents.
Tonight, be careful.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 18, 2022
Conceding to have been “surprised” by an “exceptional” situation and “difficult to predict” by its digital models, Météo France defended itself from not having activated its orange vigilance in advance on Thursday morning.
In central Italy, two people died on Thursday and around 50 were injured in a storm that uprooted trees and swept away roofs in Tuscany.
In Austria, a storm also killed five people on Thursday, including two children.
