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WEATHER

Storm warning for 100km/h winds in northern France on Thursday

Northern France is braced for very high winds on Thursday as Storm Gerrit arrives from the UK, forecasters have warned.

Published: 27 December 2023 16:49 CET
Updated: 28 December 2023 09:34 CET
Storm warning for 100km/h winds in northern France on Thursday
Waves crash over the coastline at Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais, during a storm in 2020. (Photo by Denis Charlet / AFP)

Snow, rain and high winds from Storm Gerrit have caused widespread disruption in Britain, with travellers warned of delays and potentially hazardous conditions on their way home from the Christmas holidays.

High winds arrived in northern France on Wednesday evening, with gusts of 115km/h recorded in Finistère, Brittany, and storm warnings remain in place on Thursday. 

Météo France has put seven départements in Brittany, Normandy and Hauts-de-France on early warning for high winds; Finistère, Morbihan, Côtes-d’Armor, Manche, Calvados, Pas-de-Calais and Nord.

On Wednesday winds of  115km/h were recorded in Ouessant, Finistère, 98 km/h in Boulogne, 95 km/h at Cap de la Hague and 92 km/h at Ile de Groix, in Morbihan, Brittany.

Winds are predicted to be as strong or stronger on Thursday, with stormy conditions likely to remain into the weekend.

Much of France will see heavy rain on Thursday.

Cross-Channel ferries could see delays because of the storm – DFDS says services are running with a 60-minute delay and advises passengers to follow its social media feeds for the latest information, while P&O reports that ferries are running on time.

On Wednesday, significant delays were reported at Dover because of “staff sickness within Police aux Frontières”, although traffic appeared to be flowing freely on Thursday morning.

Forecasters predict “strong gusts from Brittany to the Channel coast”, reaching the storm threshold of 100 km/h in western Brittany, and 80 km/h inland. In Normandy and Hauts-de-France, wind speeds will be between 70km/h and 80 km/h along the coast.

Météo France also warned that winds will remain strong, with gusts of up 50 90km/h, into Thursday and Friday, though it has not yet raised any alerts for those days. 

Later in the week, Météo France has said that “gale force winds” are possible across the northern half of France on New Year’s Eve, but forecasters have said that the models are not necessarily completely accurate this far out.

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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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