Winter is coming back.
Temperatures, after heat peaks on New Year's Eve (14.1°C in Rennes, or 12.6°C in Besançon) have dropped drastically since the start of the week.
Say goodbye to light sweaters and canvas pants.
According to La Chaîne Météo*, snow is coming for the first time this year in the central and eastern regions of France, after a particularly mild start to winter.
Four departments, Allier, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme and Saône-et-Loire are on snow orange alert, according to the latest press release from La Chaîne Météo.
The weather forecasts are pessimistic: "
The temperatures will continue to drop gradually as the weekend approaches towards 5°, that is to say a little below the average for the season
", warns Pascal Scaviner, forecasting manager. to the Weather Channel.
The cause ?
“
Extreme climate variability linked to abnormal circulation.
At that time, France was dominated by an oceanic flow and an east-west wind, but for several years, due to climate change, the oceanic flow is no longer the majority and gives way to the meridian flow which comes from the south.
".
The heat, therefore, comes from the south and replaces, for a few days as since the beginning of December, the usual oceanic flow which brings us the cold.
Climate change modifies “
the centers of action, that is to say the depressions and the anticyclones
”, and therefore the atmospheric circulation.
"
On average, the circulation in Western Europe is less oceanic
," adds Pascal Scaviner.
However, the cold returns and with it, the snow.
But in Paris, for example, it should not color the tarred floors white.
"
Throughout the country as a whole, but also in Paris, the ground is not cold enough
" for the snow to remain under our feet.
Mountain professionals can however be reassured, the cold should allow the return of snow in the Alps and the Pyrenees.
*The Weather Channel is a property of the Figaro group.