Violent storms crossed France on Saturday, claiming a victim in Rouen and causing the refuge of explorers who were camping, but this storm activity will decrease on Sunday according to Météo-France, which has lifted the orange watch for the last 25 affected departments.
In Rouen, where some streets were transformed into a torrent by the violence of the storms, a woman in her thirties died trapped under a car after being swept away by the waters, she learned from the mayor’s office in the Norman town.
“They found her but she died”said the same source. Shortly before, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had reported a “missing woman in Rouen” On twitter.
Météo-France lifted the orange “Storms” watch on Sunday morning for the 25 departments that remained affected, mainly located in the north-eastern suburb of France. Earlier in the evening, the weather forecasting organization had lifted this watch for the north, Pas-de-Calais, and Seine-et-Marne.
In Yonne, near Avallon, gusts of wind exceeded 100 km/h and more than 30 mm of rain fell in 12 minutes in Dornes, in the south of Nièvre, according to Météo-France.
The electrical activity was very intense, with a total of around 50,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours, reports Météo-France.
In the Landes and Gers, hailstones of several centimeters fell on part of the Armagnac vineyard, winegrowers and local officials told AFP.
“This corridor of hail followed the entire Lando-Gers border and it is estimated that between 4 and 5,000 hectares of vines and several tens of thousands of hectares of crops in Gers were affected”said the president of the Departmental Chamber of Agriculture Bernard Malabirade.
“In Montreal-du-Gers, we had hail bigger than a golf ball.”according to the director of the interprofessional Armagnac, Olivier Goujon.
In Frêche (Landes), the oenologist Nelly Lacave has recovered her 8.5 hectares of vineyard “Chopped up”. “In the vineyards there is nothing left, the roof of our farm building is a giant Swiss cheese and the windows in the house have been blown out. My father, who is almost 70 years old, has never seen that.”he told AFP.
Not far from there, in Labastide-d’Armagnac (Landes), Mayor Alain Gaube believes he has “lost between 70 and 90% of the vines”. “On the ground there is a large part of the leaves and grapes. The grapes that remain (on the vine) are already brown, they are dead”he laments.
If there are no injuries in the Landes, 4,500 homes have been left without electricity.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne promised in the evening that the government would be “there for the affected territories”turning to him “victims of the bad weather that plagues the entire country and the rescue teams that carried out hundreds of interventions”.
In fact, lightning lit up the sky in Brittany as well as in Centre-Val de Loire, Normandy and Ile-de-France. Amateur photographers have posted images of the top of the Eiffel Tower struck by lightning on social media.
“State services and @SecCivileFrance media are mobilized, ready to intervene”tweeted Gérald Darmanin, inviting the population “follow the advice of the authorities and remain very vigilant”.
In Vincennes, east of Paris, the We love green music festival had to be interrupted because “the conditions are not pleasant neither for the public nor for the artists”announced an announcer on stage, according to an AFP journalist.
In the National Estate of Chambord (Loir-et-Cher), 30,000 explorers from the unit of France gathered for the Pentecost weekend had to shelter, including a third inside the castle.
“The storm passed around 4:30 p.m. It lasted a few minutes but was relatively strong and a gust of wind knocked down the Cubs’ tents.”explained to AFP Damien Tardy, in charge of relations with the press of the movement.
“Ten thousand young people, aged 8 to 12, were housed in the castle in cooperation with the prefecture”, the older ones “on a sloping plain”, according to him.
Far from this stormy supercell, Corsica has seen the mercury fly: a heat record for a month of June was recorded in Cap Corsein the north of the island, with 37.4 degrees, according to Météo-France.
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