A rainy winter, but not a very cold winter.
After a record autumn, the winter of 2023-2024 is the third warmest ever measured in France, Météo France revealed this Thursday in a press release.
Between the beginning of December and the end of February, traditionally the coldest period of the year, the mercury should exceed “by around 2 degrees” the normals for the period 1991-2020, behind 2020 (+2.3°C) and 2016 ( +2.1°C), specifies the weather forecast organization.
In 2021, 2022 and 2023, winter temperatures had already been above normal.
With a thermal anomaly of +3.6 degrees, February 2024 is the second hottest February in history after 1990 (+4°C).
This is also the 25th month in a row not to fall below normal.
The Weather Channel indicates that never since 1930 has the first half of February been so hot.
[1/2] 📊 #climate assessment: winter 2023-2024 finishes 3rd among the hottest winters ever measured in France (approximately +2°C), behind 2020 (+2.3°C) and 2016 ( +2.1°C).
The mildness set in from the end of January, with temperatures worthy of spring.
pic.twitter.com/Xk1xwZfITL
— Météo-France (@meteofrance) February 29, 2024
Locally, the winter of 2023-2024 was the warmest ever recorded in Alsace since 1947 and in Corsica it ranks tied with the winter of 2020, according to Météo France.
On a global scale too, the thermometer continues to break records: January was the eighth month in a row to be the hottest ever recorded in the world, according to the European Copernicus observatory.
Winters less cold than before
For Météo France, this “increase in temperatures, a consequence of climate change, leads to a shortening of the winter season”.
“Our winters are less cold than before, lasting frosts and snow in the plains are becoming more and more rare,” underlines the weather forecasting organization.
Emblematic sign: since the beginning of December, only the period from January 7 to 20 has been characterized by a truly winter episode.
Icy temperatures had affected the north of France, with -14.7°C recorded in Arras for example, and the snow, which had fallen on the plains, had severely disrupted traffic in several places.
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Paris, Lille, Reims… Images of the northern half of France under the snow
But since January 23, the thermometer has started to rise again.
Peaks of mildness were reached with average temperatures more than 6°C above normal.
The 25°C mark was crossed on Thursday January 25, in the Pyrénées-Orientales and in Hérault.
The mild streak continued until February 22.
Feeling of a “rotten winter”
Despite everything, in certain parts of the country, particularly in the north, the impression of a “rotten winter” still dominates many minds.
The fault is a lack of sunshine and sequences of marked and persistent rain in certain regions.
Pas-de-Calais was particularly hit by several major floods, and the Paca region also experienced two episodes of intense rainfall in February.
Over the entire winter, France recorded an excess of rain of around 10% on average.
Relatively good news for groundwater, whose situation nevertheless remains precarious, after long months of almost uninterrupted drought.
In certain regions, it still remains dramatic.
The Eastern Pyrenees and the entire Languedoc-Roussillon region recorded their third winter with a significant deficit in terms of precipitation, as well as Corsica which hardly saw a drop of rain fall this winter.
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On the sun side, the central-west regions in the Paris basin and the Ardennes were little spoiled.
The sunshine deficit there has reached 10 to 30%.
Winter was finally marked by a lack of snow and very few frosts in the plains.
Snowflakes were almost absent in low and medium mountains (Vosges, Jura, Massif central, Corsica and Pyrenees), forcing several ski resorts to close their slopes.
In the Alps, snow cover was also in deficit at low altitude but in excess in high mountains, notes Météo France which sees this again as “a direct consequence of climate change”.