19 departments from the Ardennes to Haute-Garonne placed in orange vigilance

“A strongly stormy situation.” Nineteen departments, from the Ardennes to Haute-Garonne, were placed on orange alert by Météo France, Wednesday June 21. This isthe Ardennes, the Meuse, the Marne, the Aube, the Yonne, the Loiret, the Nièvre, the Loiret, the Charente, the Dordogne, the Lot, the Lot-et-Garonne, the Haute-Vienne, the Corrèze, Creuse, Indre, Cher, Nièvre and Orne. These thunderstorms are expected Wednesday evening and next night. They may be accompanied by heavy rain, hail, gusts.

On Tuesday, bad weather had already affected the Southwest. The strong gusts of wind caused trees to fall, cutting off some roads, and a “ten roofs” were torn off in the small village of Miradoux (Gers), which has around 500 inhabitants, according to the prefecture.

In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, heavy rainfall and hailstorms affected Basque villages, covering the ground with large hailstones, which damaged crops and caused localized flooding.

The department’s firefighters carried out around 40 interventions and several people were slightly injured by the hailstorms without anyone requiring transport to hospital, the prefecture reported. An elementary school was evacuated of its hundred children.