First heatwave of 2025, western France on orange alert

With temperatures above 35°C, France is experiencing its first heatwave of 2025 this Friday, according to Météo-France, which has placed 16 departments, mostly in the West, on orange heatwave alert, before a peak is expected across the country on Saturday. Blazing sun, persistent sweltering heat, and unusually warm nights... From Brittany to Poitou-Charentes, via the Loire Valley and southern Occitanie, the thermometer is expected to reach 36°C to 38°C this Friday afternoon, around ten degrees higher than seasonal norms, the meteorological institute points out.

Fourteen departments in the West, from Manche to Charente-Maritime and from Morbihan to Indre-et-Loire, have been placed on orange heatwave alert ("be very vigilant") as of Friday midday, as have the Rhône and Isère departments in the Centre-East. Around thirty others are on yellow alert ("be careful") and two are on orange alert for forest fires (Aude and Bouches-du-Rhône).

Production reductions are possible in the nuclear park , particularly at the Bugey power plant site (Ain), due to the high temperatures of the Rhône, which cools the installation, EDF warned on Thursday.

"This heatwave is remarkable for its precocity, but also for its intensity, especially for the western regions, since it began on June 19, before the summer solstice , " Tristan Hamm, a forecaster at Météo-France, analyzed for AFP.

This is the 50th heatwave recorded by the public institution since 1947, and one of the earliest. The three previous ones, which began before the formal start of summer on June 21, all occurred in the 21st century, a frequency that "is in line with this logic of global warming," according to Météo-France. "With a warming climate, we must expect heatwaves on average that may occur earlier, longer, and more intense," notes Tristan Hamm.

Metropolitan France has already warmed by at least 1.7°C compared to the pre-industrial era, before the massive combustion of coal, oil and gas, and the public authorities are preparing for a warming of 4°C by the end of the century.