The hot and sunny month of July broke several records in the departments of Orne and Calvados, both in terms of temperature, sunshine and precipitation according to Météo France readings.
“We are close to the state of drought of 1976 for the two departments” observes the forecaster Hélène Poullain based at the Caen-Carpiquet station.
The department of L’Orne has thus never experienced such a dry month of July since the beginning of the surveys in 1959 with 12 mm of precipitation. This is only 20% of seasonal norm. The previous record of a dry July had been recorded so far in 1964 with 15mm.
Driest July in Alençon since 1947
This average hides different situations in the Orne department. Thus only 3.6 mm of precipitation fell on Alençon (Unheard of since… 1947 and the start of measurements on the city) and 4 mm in the regions of L’Aigle and Sées when 25 mm fell on Tourouvre located in the Perche.
“The little precipitation that fell on the department is due to showers and thunderstorms so it did not cover the whole department” explains Hélène Poullain.
This phenomenon is also found in the department of Calvados. Even if it is not the driest month of July, it rained almost three times less than the seasonal norms (17 mm against 55 expected). “We only had 3 mm in Vire against 36 mm of precipitation in Saint Sylvain on the plain of Caen mainly due to a storm on July 22.”
Temperature and sunshine records in Caen
The absence of precipitation and clouds naturally had an impact on the insolation in the two departments.
The Météo France stations have thus noted 313 hours of sunshine in Caenthe meteorological services had never observed such a figure for the month of July since they carried out this type of survey (1991).
Caen and Lisieux also beat their temperature record recorded over a month of July with respectively 42.1° and 40.5°
Readings in line with a less rainy and warmer year
The beginning of this year 2022 is for the moment the hottest ever observed in Calvados since the existence of Météo France readings (1947). The average temperature between January and July thus stands at 12.1° (The previous record in 202 was 11.8°)
Orne is also approaching a record with an average temperature of 11.8° over the same period.
As for the precipitation observed since October, it shows a deficit of 25% for both Orne and Calvados.