(Paris) After a record summer of heat waves and disasters linked to global warming, Monday saw many heat records fall for the month of September, said Météo-France.
Posted at 1:19 p.m.
Updated at 1:27 p.m.
While the meteorological autumn began in September, this “remarkable heat peak” in the words of Météo-France, mainly affected a large southwestern quarter of the country.
Like the three summer heat waves (June-July-August), it is due to a low-pressure phenomenon in the Atlantic, which “sucks in warm tropical air, which then heads towards northern Spain and then the south -West of France “.
Some temperatures approached 40°C, such as in the Landes where in Mont-de-Marsan they reached 39.1°C (former record 37.1°C on September 12, 2016) and 39.0°C in Dax (former record 38.0°C on September 12, 2016).
Records also in the Pyrenees, with 38.9°C recorded in Pau (36.3°C on September 7, 1970) or in Bordeaux, where temperatures in Sauternes and its world-famous vineyards reached 38.1°C ( 37°C on September 12, 2016).
Inland, Albi recorded 36.5°C (previous record 36.4°C on September 3, 2005) and Villefranche-de-Rouergue 36.1°C (35.4°C on September 3, 2005) and further up the Atlantic coast Nantes broke a record of more than 60 years, with 35.1°C (34.3°C on 1er September 1961).
Unlike the summer heat waves, which reached a cumulative duration record with 33 days, this autumn heat peak should be short-lived according to Météo-France, with a stormy evolution on Tuesday which will continue on Wednesday over almost the entire territory, with particular attention to northern Languedoc and the periphery of the lower Rhône valley where the risk of violent storms accompanied by intense rain will be particularly high.
Climatologists have long warned that global warming will lead to hotter summers with heat spells starting earlier and continuing later.
The summer of 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere was an illustration of the ravages of climate change, including in France which experienced its second hottest summer on record with an average temperature of 2.3°C above normal and numerous fires, widespread drought and deadly thunderstorms.