France on extreme heat alert in south as temperatures set to soar

Most of France will experience high temperatures on Monday with 40 degrees expected in parts of the south, according to weather services. 

Visitors relax at the entrance of the Louvre museum in Paris, where temperatures were expected to reach 32 degrees Celsius on Monday. AFP/File

National weather service Météo France has put 11 departments of southern France, most of them in the southwest Occitanie region, on alert for extreme heat.

Highs were predicted to rise above 35 degrees in and around Toulouse and reach 40 degrees in parts of the Pyrénées Mountains. 

Très forte #chaleur demain lundi. 30° atteints jusqu'au nord de la Seine, localement 40° en Midi-Pyrénées. Nette baisse mardi avec une masse d'air plus tempérée par l'ouest mais >35° encore en vallée du Rhône et Dauphiné.
➡️restez informés : https://t.co/3W12yO88cB pic.twitter.com/1hgHIy64fo

— VigiMétéoFrance (@VigiMeteoFrance) July 26, 2020

Areas in the Rhone valley in the southeast were also expected to be hot, with 38 degrees forecast in Lyon and 37 degrees in Grenoble.

Météo France predicted highs over 30 degrees north of the Seine River, with Paris and Strasbourg both expected to hit 32 degrees.

As is often the case, coastal areas in the northwest were to be spared the heat, with a high of 23 degrees forecast in Cherbourg on the English Channel and 20 degrees in Brest on the western tip of Brittany. 

Average temperatures nationwide were to be 9 degrees warmer than Sunday in an episode the weather monitor had predicted at the weekend. 

“On Monday, the country will witness a temporary anticyclonic push with sun and a peak in temperatures, with an average of 30 degrees Celsius in the north and 35 degrees in the south,” the service said Saturday. 

A cool air mass is expected to bring temperatures down by Tuesday.

But the very hot temperatures of Monday were not expected to stay away: many regions are predicting temperatures in the high 30s again by the end of the week. 

Aside from a hot spell in late June, France and Europe have largely been spared summer heat waves they have known in recent years, and that have been registered elsewhere on the northern hemisphere, especially in Siberia. 

Overall temperatures across Europe have been 2 degrees hotter during the last five years than they were in the latter half of the nineteenth century