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WEATHER

France to see 30C temperatures over weekend

French weather forecaster Météo France has predicted an unusually hot weekend for October - with temperatures set to top 30C in much of the country.

Published: 6 October 2023 17:22 CEST
France to see 30C temperatures over weekend
France is predicted to have a hot weekend. Photo: AFP

France’s autumn heatwave is predicted to continue with high temperatures over the weekend and into next week.

With much of the country already seeing hot, sunny weather more usual for the height of summer – October is set to continue to break temperature records.

Météo France predicts that large swathes of southern France will see temperatures up to 30C on Saturday and Sunday. 

“The 30C threshold will be reached quite often in Occitanie and southern Aquitaine, and locally in the interior of Provence”, said Météo France. “The mercury will reach levels that are highly unusual for October, and sometimes unheard of this late in the season.”

The south-west cities of Tarbes and Toulouse are predicted to see the hottest temperatures.

The north will be  a little cooler but still likely to be warm and sunny, with temperatures of 23C predicted for Paris.

The warm weather is set to continue into next week.

“On Monday, most regions will see temperatures in excess of 25C, while readings between 30C and 32C will be fairly common in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the Loire Valley,” continued the weather bulletin, which adds that new monthly records for an October could be set.

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HEALTH

Storms prompt asthma and pollen warnings in France

Asthmatics and anyone with pollen allergies have been warned to be on the alert in the coming days, as a wave of thunderstorms are forecast to hit large areas in south, central and eastern France creating a 'pollen storm'.

Published: 7 June 2024 11:35 CEST
Storms prompt asthma and pollen warnings in France

Storms began to spread across parts of France on Thursday and are set to be a key feature on the forecasts through to Sunday, with experts warning that they could trigger ‘storm-induced’ asthma attacks.

The combination of electrical storms and high pollen concentrations in the southern half of the country is set to increase the risk of respiratory problems from Friday, France’s Réseau National de Surveillance Aérobiologique (RNSA) warned. 

This phenomenon causes pollen grains to break up into fine particles, which spread rapidly and penetrate more deeply into the respiratory system. People allergic to pollen and asthma sufferers are among those most at risk.

On Friday, some 23 départements were under yellow alert for thunderstorms, with a southern belt stretching from the Landes, in the south-west to the Alps in the south-east. This figure is set to fall to 11 on Saturday, mainly in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and southern Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

Yellow alerts for thunderstorms in southern France increase the risk of pollen allergies. Alerts in place on Friday, June 7. Map: MeteoFrance

“These weather conditions, combined with the high concentrations of grass pollen currently observed and forecast for this week … considerably increase the risk of storm-induced asthma,” the RNSA said in a press release. 

Pollen counts are extremely high over a large band of France, from the Atlantic coast to Alsace and the entire south-western quarter, it said.

During the first half-hour of a thunderstorm, patients suffering from pollen allergies may inhale a high concentration of the allergenic material that is dispersed into the atmosphere, which in turn can induce asthmatic reactions, often severe

Experts don’t fully understand why these events trigger breathing problems. But air flow within a thunderstorm system is thought to be important. 

Thunderstorms form when warm wetter air on the earth’s surface is beneath much cooler air higher in the atmosphere. The warm air rises quickly (known as up-draft) which causes the cool air to flow down towards the ground (known as down-draft). As the warm air rises, it cools and the moisture condenses into clouds and water molecules.

As a result pollen concentration “increases rapidly close to the ground with the strong downward winds that carry grass pollen from the upper air layers to the air layers close to the ground,” the RNSA said. 

Pollen then becomes waterlogged and bursts open under the combined effect of high air humidity, gusts of wind and variations in the electric field in the atmosphere. “The result is fine allergenic particles that can penetrate even deeper into the lungs”.

Thunderstorm asthma manifests itself as breathing difficulties comparable to an asthma attack, and occurs mainly – but not exclusively – in people allergic to grass pollen and asthmatics in general, but also in children and young adults. 

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