Hot weekend ahead in France, records set to be broken
The south-west in particular will face temperatures of 10C higher than usual as October begins
Temperatures are unseasonably warm for this time of year
Dmitry Naumov / Shutterstock
One last burst of exceptionally warm weather is expected this weekend in France.
Forecasters predict it will continue into next week breaking October heat records in several areas on Sunday and Monday.
All of the country will experience ‘summer’ conditions with clear skies and hot weather with no rain predicted for this weekend aside from parts of the north on Saturday.
Temperatures – which have been hovering around 30C in parts of the south-west for days – may break heat records.
General daily highs for the weekend will be between 18C and 27C in most of France, and closer to 30C or above in the south-west.
Toulouse and south-west will be the epicentre of warm weather
Yesterday (September 28) saw highs of 33C in Toulouse, around 10C hotter than the average daily high for this time of year.
Similar temperatures are expected again today, as well as across the weekend, into October 1 on Sunday and potentially the start of next week.
Toulouse’s heat record for October is 30.8C so this is predicted to be broken on Sunday.
The city is expected to go at least seven days with temperatures reaching above 30C and without rain (September 26 – October 3), which is exceptional for this time of year.
It is the same for several other towns in the south-west.
These include predictions of 33C in Albi (October heat record there is 31.4C), 33C in Montauban (compared to 32C) and 29C in Le Puy (26.8C).
Read more: Why are temperatures rising again in France: how warm and how long?
Not just the south-west
Although the south-west is experiencing the warmest weather, temperatures have been abnormally high throughout the country with cities as far north as Strasbourg almost reaching 30C.
In Paris, a high of 28C is expected on Monday (October 2) – nine degrees higher than usual for that day, and close to breaking the October heat record of 28.9C.
How long will the warm spell last?
Temperatures are expected to cool down from Tuesday (October 3), although remaining higher than average October recordings across the country, when rain pushing in from the Atlantic coast will sweep across the west, centre and east of France.
Read also
‘Face the reality’: France ‘must prepare’ for +4C global warming
