2023-09-16 14:09:36
Bad weather in France
Flooded houses and cars swept away by floods in the south
Heavy rainfall fell on Lozère, Gard and Hérault during the night from Friday to Saturday. The latter department was placed on red alert on Saturday.
PublishedSeptember 16, 2023, 4:09 p.m.
Vehicles were surprised by the floods.
SDIS34
Intense rainfall hit Hérault during the night from Friday to Saturday, now placed on red alert due to the risk of flooding, as well as Lozère and Gard, causing certain rivers to flood but without significant damage. , according to the Hérault firefighters.
“The rain-stormy deterioration set in with a first episode at the end of the night and early morning of continuous rain in the Cévennes, sometimes stormy,” explains Météo-France in its latest bulletin.
“Several cars” taken away
In the morning, in Roqueredonde, not far from the border with Aveyron, 343 mm were recorded at 9:00 a.m., the majority of which fell in six hours, according to Météo-France.
Alert level raised
The Hérault department, already on orange alert, was placed on red alert on Saturday for rain and flood by Météo-France, which estimates that “the importance of the expected accumulations”, which reached up to 500 mm in the north of the department, requires particular attention.
“Stormy rains that are not very mobile in the Cévennes” resulted in “occasionally 400 to 500 millimeters in the upper cantons of Hérault”, and “150 to 170 mm in the Cévennes Gard”, specifies the meteorological institute in its latest bulletin , also maintaining the departments of Gard and Lozère on orange rain and flood alert. “In the plains, it is not excluded to occasionally reach 100 to 140 mm”, or “the equivalent of more than a month of precipitation on average for these departments”, adds the meteorological institute.
“Consequences of rising hot and humid air”
A strong easterly wind will accompany this Mediterranean episode, the first of the season, blowing all day with gusts reaching 70 to 90 km/h from the Camargue to the Var coasts. Thirty-nine departments – located on the Atlantic coast, the north-eastern quarter as well as a large part of the Mediterranean arc and Corsica – have also been placed on yellow alert for storms or rain and floods.
These episodes of rain “are the consequences of the upwelling of warm and humid air from the Mediterranean which occurs critically from mid-September to mid-December, a period during which the sea is warmer which favors evaporation”, explained Christophe Mirmand, prefect of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (Paca) region, on Friday during a press conference. He stressed that “the resulting floods can be very sudden and very dangerous.”
(AFP)Show comments
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