the Loire, the Rhône and the Ain enter orange vigilance

Watch out for the wintry weather this Monday in France. Météo-France has just placed six departments on orange supervision for Tuesday, which encourages “to be very vigilant” because “dangerous phenomena are expected”: Ain (01), Allier (03), Loire (42), Rhône (69) , Saône -et-Loire (71) and Haute-Savoie (74).

For Monday, only the Allier, the Loire and the Rhône are affected by the orange surveillance which will last until Tuesday 13 December at noon. A disturbance will sway during the night from Monday to Tuesday in Rhône-Alpes, with some snowfall or freezing rain passing by. Snow is expected from 11pm Monday evening.

Extreme caution on the roads is recommended. Motorists are invited to follow the indications of caution, to inform themselves before leaving about the weather and traffic conditions and to postpone the journey if the weather forecast is particularly bad for their route.

From 1 to 3 cm of snow in a few hours

On the north of Auvergne, on the Loire, on the Rhône and on the west of Ain, the snow will still last until the end of the night on Tuesday morning, while in the Saône-et-Loire, 1 to 3 cm is expected in some places in a few hours. These snowfalls will then gradually be replaced by freezing precipitation over a large part of the department between the end of the night from Monday to Tuesday and the day on Tuesday.

“In the night from Monday to Tuesday and Tuesday morning, a perturbation rises over the central-eastern region then over the Saône et Loire from the southwest. When the very cold air which currently affects us arrives, the precipitations will first be snow up to the plain (1 to 5 cm in general), then it will turn into rain, with the thaw, first over the south of the Auvergne and the Valley of the Rhône during the night”, indicates Météo-France in its supervisory bulletin issued on Monday at 16:00.

Forty other departments are in yellow for Tuesday, including the Paris region.

Météo-France had also warned of the cold. Freezing fog was especially common in the northeast on Monday morning. The showers then fell in the form of snow overnight in Normandy, in the west of the Hauts-de-France and as far as the Paris region.

Very low temperatures on the northern half

During the afternoon, a mild and rainy degradation should approach the extreme southwest of the country, and then progress in the evening and early part of the night until it reaches the south of the Massif Central and the Mediterranean edge.

When the perturbation arrives, snowy and slippery phenomena are expected especially in the south of the Massif Central. They will move to the Southeast quarter with always the risk of snow or ice. The rain will also reach Corsica during the night.

The afternoon temperatures will always be cold, between 1 and 5 degrees on the northern half, as well as in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. They will be rising from the southwest, with 4-7 degrees in New Aquitaine, Occitania and PACA, 12 degrees on the French Riviera and up to 15 degrees in the Basque Country and Corsica.