Violent thunderstorms hit the Indre in the night from Sunday to Monday May 23, and in particular Châteauroux, reports this Monday France Bleu Berry. Heavy rain and hail accompanied these storms, which also affected Charente and Charente-Maritime, Vienne and Deux-Sèvres. “It fell all of a sudden” told franceinfo Margot, employee in a bakery in Châteauroux (Indre), who saw “very large hailstones, the size of a hand”.
The municipality of Châteauroux (Indre) opened the Valère-Fourneau gymnasium last night to welcome “Anyone victim of bad weather at their home and who would not be able to spend the night there”, can we read on the city’s Twitter account. Mayor Gil Avérous indicated in particular that a family with four children had come “early at night to take refuge because their house was particularly degraded”.
The hailstones, some as big as tennis balls, caused significant damage in the town. Gil Avérous speaks on France Bleu Berry of 250 houses and about 1,000 cars damaged. Margot, the baker, noticed “a huge hole” in its pane. Martine, another resident of Châteauroux, spent the night “to mop up” his attic because of the holes the hailstones made in his roof. “I’ve never been so scared in my life”she confides to France Bleu Berry.
The La Fayette college, in the Grands Champs district of Châteauroux, indicated that it will remain closed to students and staff on Monday, the time to assess the damage and the risks. In this district, 75% of the houses are damaged, specifies France Bleu Berry. Many trees have fallen on the roads. The Indre firefighters were mobilized all night to intervene and secure the areas concerned.
Clearly want to cry, it was super scary, my neighbor’s roof collapsed so we’re hosting people, broken tiles, cars etc, in short I just hope no one is hurt! I took hard so that everyone came out unscathed… #Chateauroux pic.twitter.com/KrlgqWZdl1
— Clem (@_clem36_) May 22, 2022
⛈ The damage is significant in Châteauroux where monstrous hailstones fell as the storm passed. Hundreds of vehicles are damaged! (© Cristelle Grodet) pic.twitter.com/FLxgjeM0nM
— Weather Express (@WeatherExpress) May 22, 2022
The department of Indre was placed on orange alert to storms, like Vienne and Deux-Sèvres. Vigilance was lifted Monday morning. In Vienne, thunderstorms also caused damage in places with 80 firefighter interventions for “flooding of houses, damage to roofs pierced by falling hailstones and lightning strikes”, according to France Bleu Poitou. There were no injuries but material damage.
Météo France recorded more than 6,000 lightning strikes on the ground in three hours (between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.) in Indre and Cher. 18,000 lightning strikes were detected by Météorage in these two departments. In addition to hail, 27 mm of rain was measured in Pruniers (Indre), while the wind blew up to 107 km / h in Rosnay (Indre), west of Châteauroux.
From #thunderstorms circulate on the center-west. They are accompanied by drops of #hail (sometimes more than 5 cm in diameter) and strong electrical activity. Stay safe and stay informed at https://t.co/KA0Ij27Eea pic.twitter.com/r25t9shum7
— VigiMeteoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) May 22, 2022
Earlier in the evening, between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., it was in Poitou that the storms broke out. In 3 hours, Météorage recorded more than 8,600 lightning strikes, with around 2,000 lightning strikes on the ground. The Niort region (Deux-Sèvres) was particularly affected. In just 30 minutes, Météo France recorded 21 mm of rain in Niort-Souché, Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole and Chauvigny (Vienne), and 33 mm in Ménigoute (Deux-Sèvres). In the south of Niort, 8 cm hailstones were observed.