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WEATHER

Heatwave alerts spread to Paris as temperatures set to hit 38C

Temperature records are predicted to explode in France on Saturday as almost the entire country is under a weather alert for extreme heat.

Published: 17 June 2022 16:33 CEST
Heatwave alerts spread to Paris as temperatures set to hit 38C
Photo by Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP

Much of the country has seen high temperatures all week with an unusually early heatwave, but Saturday is predicted to be the hottest day so far.

A total of 14 département are red alert – the highest alert level where the temperatures present a danger to human health and life – while 56 of the country’s 96 mainland départements are on orange alert.

The alert area covers almost the entire country including the greater Paris Île-de-France region and most of Brittany and Normandy, where temperatures are predicted to hit 38C.

The highest temperatures remain in west and south west France, which will continue to see 40C heat on Saturday.

The areas on red alert are; Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, Gers, Gironde, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Vendée and Vienne. 

In better news, the heatwave is predicted to break on Saturday evening with storms pushing in from the west and ushering in cooler temperatures.

Friday saw one third of French départements at the highest or second-highest heat alert level, schoolchildren in the south west were told to stay at home, many public events were cancelled and the health ministry activated a special heatwave hotline.

“Hospitals are at capacity, but are keeping up with demand,” Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon told reporters in Vienne, near Lyon in the southeast.

“This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France” since 1947, said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at weather authority Meteo France.

With “many monthly or even all-time temperature records likely to be beaten in several regions,” he called the unseasonable weather a “marker of climate change”.

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WINE

Italy to overtake France as world’s largest wine producer

Italy is due to regain its spot as the world's largest wine producer in 2024 as France's vineyards are hit by unfavourable weather, according to figures from each country's agricultural authorities.

Published: 18 September 2024 16:24 CEST
Italy to overtake France as world's largest wine producer

After a disastrous 2023 harvest, Italy’s production will recover eight percent to between 41 million and 42 million hectolitres, the country’s main agricultural association Coldiretti said on Wednesday.

The French agriculture ministry had estimated earlier this month that French production will fall 18 percent to 39.3 million hectolitres.

Coldiretti noted that this year’s output in Italy still remains well under the average of recent years, as different parts of the country cope with either heavy rains or drought.

Since 2007, Italy has been the world’s top producer each year apart from 2011, 2014 and 2023, when it was pipped by France, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).

Coldiretti said Italy is “divided in two” with the north hit by “intense rain and hail in spring and early summer”, while large parts of the south and Sicily have faced drought.

Heat and lack of rain led to particularly early harvests in some parts of the country.

In France, the steepest fall is expected in the eastern Jura mountain range where frosts and mildew are expected to result in a 71 percent drop in output.

In terms of volume, the biggest drop will be in the western Charente region where production will fall 35 percent.

Output is expected to fall by 30 percent in the Loire Valley and by a quarter in the Burgundy-Beaujolais area, which was hit by severe hail.

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