This Thursday should be the hottest day of the week in Sarthe: 13 degrees expected in Mamers, 14 ° C in Saint-Calais, 15 ° C in Sablé and Le Mans unusually mild temperatures for this period where the average is usually around 7-8 degrees. The records for the season go back to December 2000 with 18.3 ° C at Le Mans or even on December 16, 1989 when 16.5 degrees were recorded at Cormes. So we won’t beat a record this month. “It has already happened that the months of December are particularly mild, especially in 2015, which is not very far from us. If we go back further, in 1989, in 1925, we had temperatures that were comparable. But it’s still more and more frequent“notes Cyril Bonnefoy, meteorologist with the Weather Channel. A year that ends with abnormally high temperatures … as it began.
Heat then frost in spring: bad cocktail for crops
We remember spring and its very early heat: 26.6 ° C at Le Mans on April 1, followed by frosts just five days later which caused extensive damage to crops, for example for viticulture in the South-Sarthe. Then, the department broke rainfall records: May was the third wettest month in the department since the start of the surveys. Two big thunderstorms broke again in June, causing further damage to agriculture. July-August then ended a series of very hot summers. We had usual temperatures this summer. A logical phenomenon believes Cyril Bonnefoy: “We got used to summers marked by significant thermal surpluses. There it shows that, even in the context of climate change which is indisputable, there can be inter-annual variability, but also within a year. This is why I prefer to speak of climate change in the plural rather than just global warming.“says the meteorologist.
I prefer to speak of climate change in the plural rather than just global warming.
What we are observing at the moment: it was 4 to 8 degrees maximum during Christmas week against the double this week: 14 degrees expected in Saint-Calais, 15 ° C in Sablé this Thursday, December 30. “These temperatures, indeed, are abnormal for the season and it is repeated more and more, et this is where we should not rejoice in this trend which is very problematic“notes Cyril Bonnefoy again. If we take the example of winter, plants need cold to regenerate. Fortunately for this time, the cold is expected from the first week of January; the mildness of this end of December Should not therefore impact crops, and if snow is expected quickly on the French mountain ranges, if the Sarthois themselves, will have to wait a little longer to hope to see some snowflakes this winter.