France: 28 departments on orange heatwave alert as temperatures retreat eastward

Orange vigilance maintained for 28 departments

Météo-France placed 28 departments on orange heatwave vigilance from 6:00 on Sunday 16 August, the fifth heatwave episode in France since May. The affected departments span Corsica (Corse-du-Sud, Haute-Corse), the Mediterranean coast (Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, Var, Vaucluse), Rhône-Alpes (Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Rhône, Savoie, Haute-Savoie), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Côte-d'Or, Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Nièvre), and the Grand Est (Haute-Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Vosges, Territoire-de-Belfort). The 36 other departments previously under orange vigilance were downgraded to yellow or green. A "large western half" of France dropped one alert level, according to the bulletin published at 6:00 on Sunday.

Heat persists in the southeast

After a national temperature peak on Thursday and Friday, temperatures began falling in the west on Saturday and continued easing eastward on Sunday. However, the southeast quarter of the country remained under heatwave conditions. Météo-France warned that "heatwave conditions persist from the Lyonnais to the Rhône valley and the Mediterranean regions with 35 to 38 degrees". Forecast maxima for Sunday reached 35°C in Lyon, 34°C in Marseille, 34°C in Perpignan, and 33°C in Nantes, Strasbourg, and Ajaccio. The heatwave in the southeast is expected to continue "until the middle of next week", according to the Météo-France bulletin.

Twelve departments to leave alert Sunday evening

Twelve departments in the Grand Est and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions are scheduled to exit orange vigilance at 22:00 on Sunday, per Météo-France forecasts. All departments of Lorraine and Alsace, along with Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (with the exception of Saône-et-Loire and Jura), will leave the orange level at that time. The gradual retreat of the heatwave follows the peak recorded on Thursday and Friday, with cooling spreading from west to east across the country.

Severe storms forecast for the southwest

Météo-France also warned of storm developments expected over the southwest from late Saturday afternoon, originating from the south of the Massif Central and the eastern Pyrenees. The more violent storms were forecast to trigger over the Albigeois and the northeast of the Toulouse plain, then propagate westward through the Agenais, the Gers, the Quercy, the Périgord, before ending in Landes and Gironde. Gusts could reach 80 to 90 km/h, with locally heavy rainfall of 30 to 50 mm in one hour and small hail. The risk of escalation to orange vigilance for storms was described as low but not entirely ruled out if a storm cell gained further intensity.

A summer of repeated heat

Le Parisien reported that this summer has seen heat episodes succeed one another, with 40°C reaching regions previously spared. The current heatwave could be the last of this intensity in 2026, though the newspaper noted that further heatwave episodes remain possible in September and even October. Meanwhile, several wildfires continued to burn across France and Europe on Saturday 15 August, with firefighters working to contain blazes driven by abnormally high temperatures, low rainfall, and violent wind gusts that have made vegetation particularly flammable.