Nineteen French departments are under orange alert Wednesday as the country prepares for the arrival of Storm Nils, with conditions expected to worsen Thursday. The alerts cover a range of threats, including strong winds, heavy rainfall, and potential flooding, according to Météo-France.
Even as Wednesday is expected to remain relatively calm, particularly in the Occitanie region, the storm is forecast to sweep across France from the Morbihan department in Brittany to the Hérault department in the south, encompassing areas as far as the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Corrèze. Vigi Météo France anticipates 24 departments will be at orange alert level by Thursday.
Météo-France has confirmed the alerts are directly linked to Storm Nils. “Exceptionally heavy rainfall is following one after another across much of France,” the agency stated. “A new, tempestuous low named ‘Nils’ will affect the country between Wednesday and Thursday with strong winds in the south and significant rainfall in many regions.”
The storm is expected to bring wind gusts of 120 to 140 km/h (75 to 87 mph) near the Atlantic coast, decreasing to 100 to 110 km/h (62 to 68 mph) inland in the southwest, with potentially higher gusts under thunderstorms. Near the Mediterranean, winds are forecast to reach 130 to 150 km/h (81 to 93 mph).
Météo-France warns that already saturated ground conditions will exacerbate the impact of the storm, particularly on vegetation. The agency expects the storm to move across the southwest by late Thursday morning and across the Mediterranean by the evening and into Friday night.
Several departments in the region are already under orange alert for Thursday, including Hérault, Aude, and Pyrénées-Orientales, specifically due to the threat of strong winds. A separate orange alert for flooding concerns the Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme departments. Météo-France also notes that approximately forty departments are currently experiencing or are forecast to experience flooding within the next 24 hours, encompassing both orange and yellow alert levels.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition has cautioned that France has experienced several weeks of significant rainfall, particularly in Brittany, and that a large western portion of the country is now affected. The ministry emphasized the “important, lasting and widespread” nature of the flooding episode, warning of “significant overflows” and a “strongly evolving” situation. Vigicrues, the French flood monitoring service, is tracking current and potential flood events, available at vigicrues.gouv.fr.
The risk of avalanches is also elevated in mountainous regions due to the combination of rainfall, wind, and snowfall, particularly in the Pyrenees and Corsica. Additional snowfall in the Alps, beginning Wednesday and intensifying Thursday, is expected to further increase avalanche risk.