Temperatures below seasonal norms: How long will cold last in France?

Drops to as low as -6C are forecast this week

A photo of a thermometer showing 0C in snow
Temperatures are to hover around 0C or lower in much of the country this week, with only the southeast escaping the colder-than-average freeze
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Cold temperatures below the seasonal average are set to remain across France this week (from Monday, January 23) with frost, cloud, snowfall and very little sun forecast.

Temperatures will be stable but cold, with the peak expected to be 10C on the coasts, especially in the Côte d'Azur and Manche.

Minimum -6C

However, morning temperatures will be much lower across the rest of the country, at between 0 and 2C on average but dipping as low as -6C in some areas.

The coldest place was set to be in Aurilla in Cantal (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) at -6C today (Monday) and Bourg-Saint-Maurice in Savoie (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) on Tuesday morning with -2C on Tuesday.

Temperatures will be around 5C in Bordeaux, and 4C in Strasbourg.

The maximum expected in Nice and Cherbourg is 6C in the morning, rising to 9C in the afternoon in Nice. Both Biarritz and Paris will be lower at 4C.

Frost until Friday…but not February?

South-easterly areas will fare slightly better; with 12C in Marseille and Corsica. Eventually, Nice will rise to 10-11C by the afternoon at the end of the week.

Overall, Occitanie will sit between 0-2C, with a peak of 2-3C across most of the rest of the country. Paris will sit at 3C on average across the week.

The cold is expected to last until Friday with as low as -6C in Gap at the end of the week. Morning temperatures nationwide will be 0-5C, rising to a peak of 11C in Ajaccio, Corsica.

Some snow is forecast in the northeast and parts of Normandy and Ile-de-France.

Very little sun is predicted, except in some areas of the Mediterranean coast. Instead, clouds are on the horizon, along with a lot of rain for the western half of France.

After this cold snap, February is expected to be much warmer with temperatures expected to be 1-1.5C higher than average for the time of year.

It comes after parts of the country experienced up to 10cm of snow last week with snow, ice, and flood alerts issued for much of the southwest.

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