Extended heat waves, pests, historical droughts … The extreme phenomena that have taken place since June in most regions should be the norm in the years to come.
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It was summer in all dangers. In the past three months, France has experienced a succession of extended heat waves, devastating fires, historical droughts and at the same time of major floods, extremes for which the entire range of superlatives was used. Tuesday August 30, Météo-France has drawn up the assessment of this unprecedented summer, which will become the standard around 2050 under the effect of the climate crisis if the greenhouse gas emissions human origin continue at the same rate.
The summer of 2022 (i.e. the months of June, July and August in meteorology ) is the second warmer observed in France since at least 1900, with a gap of + 2.3 ° C compared to normal climatic normal 1991-2020. In the summer of 2003, whose heat wave had resulted in 15,000 dead, remains the warmest ever measured with a temperature anomaly of + 2.7 ° C.
The country has suffocated under three heat waves, the first of which in June, the earliest ever recorded. In question: a heat dome, caused by a vast anticyclone located on Western Europe which has trapped the hot air, aggravated by a high altitude depression, which has resulted in the burning air from the ‘North Africa and Spain. In total, France has undergone a record of 33 days of heat waves – a term which corresponds to precise criteria, in particular a temperature equal to or greater than 25.3 ° C for three consecutive days. It is much more than the 22 days affected in 2003, “even if the cumulative severity of the episodes of summer 2022 remains significantly lower than that of summer 2003”, indicates Météo-France.
Historical drought
During this trying summer, many records have been sprayed all over the territory. The North Finistère crossed the 40 ° C bar for the first time, and Ouessant, the western part of Metropolitan France, that of 30 ° C. From June 16, we measured more than 40 ° C in Saint-Jean-de-Minervois (Hérault), a heat never observed so early in the season in continental France. This threshold was reached in June, in July and August in Nîmes (Gard), which also constitutes an unprecedented series.
Among the exceptional values, the thermometer displayed 43 ° C in Arcachon, 42.9 ° C in Biarritz, 42 ° C in Nantes, 41.5 ° C in La Roche-sur-Yon, 40.1 ° C in Caen or 40 ° C in Dinard.
Hot nights have become the norm on the Riviera in the heart of summer. Since June 30, Nice has thus experienced 56 consecutive tropical nights-whose minimum temperatures are greater than 20 ° C-, which makes physical recovery difficult.
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