Steph Deschamps / June 18, 2022
France will still suffocate under an intense heat wave, this Saturday, June 18, 2022. With 70 departments under red or orange alert, absolute records could well be beaten. The heat wave is growing all over the country, even at night. Stifling night temperatures of 21 to 25 °C, especially in the southwest, are expected.
Already overheated, the thermometer will climb again this Saturday, June 18, 2022. This day will be marked by the amplification of the heat wave with peaks of 42° locally. New temperature records for a month of June are expected and absolute records could also be broken, before the arrival of thunderstorms from the west on Sunday.
Two thirds of the country are in heatwave alert: 14 departments are in red vigilance, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées having been added to the list. And 56 others, from the Paris region to the German border as well as from Brittany to the Lyon region, are in orange.
Records for a month of June were beaten on Friday in at least 11 communes, including Carcassonne with 40.4° and Saintes (Charente-Maritime) with 40°. Many festive, sports and cultural events have been cancelled in the departments classified red.
On Saturday afternoon, it will generally be between 38 and 41 °C in Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes, Centre-Val-de-Loire, western Burgundy and Ile-de-France. Peaks close to 42 °C are even possible locally in southern Aquitaine. Absolute temperature records could then be broken.
The thermometer will show 34 to 39 degrees in Brittany, Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Grand Est, Franche-Comté, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. On the northern coasts of Brittany and the coasts of the English Channel, it will be between 22 and 27 degrees.
With the heat, ozone concentrations in the air are clearly increasing over much of France, which predicts that they will remain high in the coming days.