many heat records broken, from the Pyrenees to the Alps via Corsica

Many local heat records were broken in the south of France on Tuesday July 18, Météo-France announced. The thermometer exceeded 40°C for the first time in Verdun in Ariège (40.6°C at 550m altitude) and in Serralongue in the Pyrénées-Orientales (40.4°C at 700m), according to provisional values ​​recorded at 5 p.m.

>> High temperatures in Europe: three questions about the heat dome currently affecting the south of France, Italy, Spain and Greece

Temperatures also broke records in other resorts, including: Alpe d’Huez (1860m) with 29.5°C; Renno in Corsica (755m) with 38.3°C; Avrieux in Savoie (1104m) with 36°C; Aups in the Var (497m) with 38.6°C; Vauvenargues in the Bouches-du-Rhône (565m) with 37.3°C. In all these municipalities, these records are 8 to 11.9°C above normal for the season.

Ten departments on orange alert on Wednesday

Météo-France has placed ten departments on heatwave orange vigilance for Wednesday. These are Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Hérault, Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Var, Vaucluse, Corse-du-Sud, Haute -Corsica and Pyrénées-Orientales.

Europe, in particular the South, is affected by an intense heat wave linked to a heat dome. “The extraordinary side is that the extremes that we see are starting to break records. This dome is grafted onto a climate that is changing”noticed with franceinfo Jean-Noël Thépaut, director of Copernicus, the European program devoted to Earth observation. “Every heat wave on the planet is made more intense and more likely by anthropogenic global warming”insisted on Twitter François Jobard, meteorologist at Météo-France.