This vigilance, which recommends that the inhabitants of the areas concerned be «very vigilant», concerns the following departments: Ariège, Aveyron, Cantal, Corrèze, Dordogne, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Maine -et-Loire, Sarthe, Mayenne, Ille-et-Villaine, Côte d’Armor, Morbihan, Finistère, Alpes-Martime, Hautes-Alpes, Isère, Savoie, Haute-Savoie.
In total, 38 departments are now affected by this alert.
The weather vigilance scale has three levels of alert: yellow (be attentive), orange (be very vigilant) and red (absolute vigilance).
The episode of strong heat, which should last at least until the beginning of next week, mainly concerns for the moment Aquitaine, Occitanie, the Rhône valley and Provence with maximums between 35 and 39 degrees, see 40 degrees locally.
On Sunday, the highs in these regions are expected to reach between 35 and 40 degrees with temperatures reaching 41 degrees locally in the South West.
«The strong heat will also extend towards the North-West», affirms Météo France. In Brittany, it will often be 34-35 degrees or more and the night cooling will be less than the previous days.
The mercury should exceed 30 degrees throughout the territory «except on the edge of the Channel and near the northern borders», indicates Météo France.
The current heat wave affects all of Western Europe, causing forest fires such as in the South West of France, Spain or Portugal. In the UK, the Meteorological Agency has issued the first-ever «red for extreme heat» alert in the country’s history. Temperatures could exceed 40 degrees there, a first since the start of weather measurements.
The last heat wave for the month of July dates back to 2019 and was exceptionally intense with average temperature records. France had thus experienced its hottest day since the start of measurements with 29.4°C on July 25 (tied with August 5, 2003), as well as its hottest night, with an average of 21.4 °C, the night of July 24 to 25.