Weather: Heatwave reaches its peak this Saturday, 16 departments still on orange alert

The first heatwave of 2025 peaks this Saturday across the whole of France, with 16 departments still placed on orange "heatwave" alert for the Fête de la Musique , especially in the west of the country where temperatures are often expected to exceed 35°C for the second consecutive day.

The surge in temperatures recorded on Friday afternoon across a large western coastline is set to increase further, according to Météo-France forecasts, which predict temperatures "above 30°C everywhere in the interior of the country."

They are even expected to reach 35 to 38°C in the interior of Brittany and the Pays de la Loire, with a peak of 39°C expected in Poitou-Charentes and the Lauragais region, near Toulouse. High temperatures will extend north of the Loire to the Paris Basin and eastward, as well as across the Channel to England.

Parks open at night

Although the orange heatwave alert is maintained in 14 departments ranging from Manche to Charentes and from Morbihan to Indre-et-Loire, as well as in Rhône and Isère, for the whole of Saturday, clouds and sometimes showers will appear in certain regions in the afternoon.

Around sixty other departments have been placed on yellow heatwave alert for Saturday, the hottest day of the week, and six for thunderstorms. According to Jérôme Lecou, ​​a forecaster at Météo-France, "we'll start to see a slight cooling" Saturday evening "with the alert being lifted on Sunday" and the heat confined Monday "mostly to the southern regions."

While waiting for this early heatwave to end, a number of cities have announced that they will leave parks and gardens open all night, at least until Sunday, to allow residents to cool off, following the example of Tours and Rennes.

The Gironde region was on yellow alert on Friday, but it was still 36°C at around 7 p.m. in Bordeaux, where tens of thousands of visitors are expected until Sunday for the "Bordeaux Fête le Vin" festival. In the afternoon, participants huddled in the shade of trees and parasols, avoiding the overheated stone quays of the Garonne River as much as possible.

Territories must adapt

Under a blazing sun and unusually warm nighttime temperatures, schools, retirement homes, communities, and businesses across the affected areas are having to adapt. In Toulouse, pedestrians were fleeing the heat, particularly in the Place du Capitole, where large shade structures can reduce the heat by an average of 5°C, according to the city hall.

EDF, for its part, anticipates possible production cuts at the Bugey nuclear power plant (Ain) next week due to high temperatures in the Rhône River, which cools the facility. Several departments issued ozone pollution alerts this Saturday, particularly in the Île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, and Occitanie regions.

In Lorient (Morbihan), the urban area has decided to make public transport free, and the prefecture has decreed the reduction of the speed limit on Morbihan's national roads to 90 km/h from Friday 8 p.m. due to this pollution.