Almost all of France faced some form of weather alert on Thursday (June 22) as storms continue to batter the country.
All but 13 departments of Metropolitan France are facing warnings for storms, heavy rain, floods or heatwaves.
Eleven departments are facing orange warnings on Thursday evening – the second-highest level – for storms or flooding.
It comes after bad weather on Wednesday (June 21) caused a number of events for Fête de la Musique to be cancelled across France.
However, the weather should take a turn for the better after Thursday, with the weekend predicted to be calm and sunny – with no weather warnings in sight for the end of the week.
Twelve departments are on orange alert
Météo France, as of Thursday morning, listed 81 departments as having weather warnings, 80 of which have a storm warning of some kind in place.
Only Brittany, the Normandy coastline, and northern Corsica are free from any warnings.
Eleven departments are facing tier-three orange warnings - the second-highest level - that advise people to take extreme caution when outside due to the weather.
These are: Ardennes, Marne, Ardeche, Gard, Vaucluse, Drôme, Isère, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Rhône and Ain.
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Credit: Météo France
A number of departments are also facing flood warnings from the heavy rain. They include more than a dozen in the northern, central part of France and Isère, Savoie and Haute-Savoie in the south-east.
The southernmost department of Corsica is still facing a heatwave warning, with temperatures expected to reach up to 35C, after reaching 41.6c in the city of Ajaccio yesterday (June 21).
Number of music shows cancelled amid storms
Celebrations for yesterday’s Fête de la Musique – which sees hundreds of free concerts around the country – were cancelled in a number of areas due to the storms.
Some concerts, where possible, were moved to indoor venues – such as in Bordeaux – but many were outright cancelled, especially in the south-west, which suffered another day of heavy rainfall.
Eleven out of twelve outdoor events in Bordeaux were affected by the weather.
Dramatic videos on social media showed people dealing with intense rain, such as this driver in the Lot-et-Garonne department:
Another video from the nearby department of Gers showed the terrifying perspective of a driver battling the storm:
Also in the department, a video from the town of Condom showed lightning crackling around rooftops.
Further north, in the Puy-de-Dôme department, photos of an oncoming superstorm were taken as it descended on the town of Issoire.
