Heavy rain and flooding alerts for Brittany departments

Finistère and Morbihan are under an orange warning ahead of a weather episode expected to start around 14:00, bringing up to 80mm of rain

An image of a car splashing through surface water on a road
Two Brittany departments are under orange weather alerts for rain and potential flooding
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The departments of Finistère and Morbihan have been placed under an orange weather alert for heavy rain and the potential for flash flooding today (December 30).

National weather forecaster Météo France has said that the episode will begin around 14:00, bringing between 50 and 80mm of precipitation between then and midday on Saturday (December 31).

The rain will be joined by strong winds of 80-100km/h. Finistère, Morbihan and 39 other departments are under yellow weather alerts for wind. You can find out more about the departments concerned on the Météo France website.

“The combination of strong winds and soils saturated with water could make it more likely that trees are uprooted and fall,” Météo France said.

People living in affected areas are encouraged to consult the Vigicrues website to check river levels near their home.

An unusually mild end to the year

This comes as Météo France states that the end of 2022 is set to be the warmest New Year’s Eve ever recorded in the country.

The forecaster added that this would be “symbolic of an exceptionally warm 2022”.

Temperatures are expected to reach around 13-14C on Saturday, and up to 20C in southwestern areas. This means that the weather will be 8C warmer than usual on average.

France’s warmest ever December day fell on December 16, 1989, when temperatures were 8.8C above normal for the season, at 14.7C on average.

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