24 departments, from the southwest to the northeast of France, placed on orange alert

The Loire, the Rhône, the Ain, the Jura and the Doubs are added to the 19 other departments announced in orange the day before by Météo-France.

Twenty-four departments on a South-West-North-East diagonal will be on orange storm alert on Saturday, August 24 from the afternoon, Météo-France announced in its morning bulletin. The Loire, the Rhône, the Ain, the Jura and the Doubs are added to the 19 other departments announced in orange the day before by the forecaster which are Allier, Ariège, Aveyron, Cantal, Côte-d’Or, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Lot, Haute-Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, Puy-de-Dôme, Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne and Vosges.

There “strong summer stormy situation (…) requires particular vigilance as there is a high probability of strong gusts of wind (especially from the Massif Central to the Grand-Est) and high intensity and accumulation of precipitation (especially Occitanie)”the organization specifies.

The start of the alert is expected around 3 p.m. and the first storms will break out in the south of Occitanie, warns the meteorological agency, which warns against “heavy rainfall (30 to 50 mm in one to two hours) as well as local hail.” Precipitation may exceed “very occasionally 80 mm”.

The stormy episode will spread to all departments placed on orange alert by the end of the afternoon, adds the same source. Strong gusts of wind will be possible, up to 110 km/h from Auvergne to Burgundy and Lorraine. The end of the orange alert is expected during the night, with no department still at this alert level in the early hours of Sunday, according to the latest bulletin from Météo-France.