According to a note published Tuesday by INSEE, in partnership with Météo-France, a large part of the metropolitan territory will suffer between sixteen and twenty-nine “abnormally hot” days in summer in the next three decades.
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Record temperatures recorded in France during the summer of 2022 will become more frequent due to climate change and will test the population. According to a note published by INSEE Tuesday, August 30, in partnership with Météo-France, a large part of the metropolitan territory, housing almost 80 % of the population today, will suffer between sixteen and twenty-nine-normally hot days in summer in the next three decades (2021-2050), against less than sixteen days in the years 1976-2005. These anomalies are defined by maximum temperatures higher than at least 5 ° C to those of reference.
Currently, 9.3 million people – 14 % of the population of metropolitan France, one resident in seven – resident in the territories where the heat anomalies during the day will be the most frequent (more than twenty days in summer) , continues INSEE. The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Occitanie regions are the most concerned, with 68 %, 47 % and 20 % of the inhabitants affected respectively. Conversely, the populations of Brittany, Corsica, Normandy and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur will be less exposed, because the anomalies will affect the coast a little less than the interior of the land. The Mediterranean coast, however, will suffer tropical nights “much more frequently than other coastlines”, indicates the note.
The repetition of abnormally hot days associated with nights where temperatures remain high increases the health risks (dehydration, heat stroke, etc.), especially for the most vulnerable people. Currently, 16 % of people over 75 and 13 % of children under 6 resident in the territories that will be the most exposed during the day. These areas also house nearly 1.2 million people living below the poverty line, sometimes living in poorly isolated accommodation. In addition, they concentrate many jobs in construction and agriculture “whose exercise is particularly difficult when temperatures are abnormal,” adds INSEE.