5,000 homes without electricity, one dead, the violent storms that hit France yesterday are also another blow to farmers.
The Armagnac vineyard was “cut off by hail”
Bad weather accompanied by hail hit almost all of France this Pentecost weekend, causing a lot of damage. Yesterday, 65 departments were on orange alert. On Twitter, Gérald Darmanin writes: “Bad weather: 705 interventions mobilizing 690 firefightersfiremen. 1 missing woman in Rouen. Thanks to all the State services mobilized“.
Hail the size of golf balls
The Armagnac vineyard was “cut by hail”, huge hailstones (the size of golf balls), hit theOccitania. For the farmers, the damage was terrible, explains the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert: “This is a new disaster for farmers, after frost and drought. The hail has affected both vineyards and cereal crops and buildings. Bad weather also affected wheat and barley; there is also damage to buildings, roofs completely perforated. More than 40 departments affected by hail“, the president specified to AFP.
The month of May has been listed as the hottest and driest on record
The hail, but before this episode, the farmers had to suffer the drought, since the month of May was classified as the hottest and driest month ever recorded in France, an episode of unusual heat that became more likely with the change climate.
50% of my farm is 90% destroyed
A winegrower from Huismes (Indre and Loire), explains on the franceinfo antenna: “50% of my farm is 90% destroyed. 50% of the vineyard doesn’t look like much anymore, that is, there are no more leaves, only one or two very damaged clusters remain. In a quarter of an hour 32 millimeters of rain and hail fell. 50% of the farm is 90% destroyed and the rest is between 30% and 40% destroyed. We will have harvests in part of the vineyard. On the other hand, there are only one or two groups left.“, regrets this viticulturist.
⛈ Impressive images of a violent storm in Castelnau-d’Auzan in the north of Gers with hail of 5 cm in diameter! This storm reaches the Agen region. (© Mimie CoFlo) pic.twitter.com/3k20DlVCJy
— Weather Express (@WeatherExpress) June 3, 2022
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