Rgusts of up to 158 km/h, falling trees, power cuts and disruptions to the rail network: after the exceptionally mild weather at the start of the year, the winter depression Gérard swept through the north of France on Monday while the South prepares for the passage of the Fien depression.
Météo-France lifted the orange alert in the middle of the afternoon for strong winds throughout the territory.
Some 23,000 customers were still without electricity at 6 p.m., around four times less than at the end of the morning, including two thirds in the West and the Center, according to the network manager Enedis.
For its part, the SNCF has identified “more than 30 incidents” linked to the storm, sometimes due to trees falling on the tracks.
The depression, named Gérard, is described by Météo-France as a “classic winter storm for the season, but requiring special monitoring”.
On the Breton and Normandy coast, the winds exceeded 120 km / h in many places. Some 158 km / h of wind was recorded at the Pointe du Raz in Finistère, a record for this station since 2017. But far from the absolute record of 216 km / h in 1987.
Inland, in the early morning, 119 km / h were recorded in Caen. The storm however lost in intensity in the afternoon while escaping towards Belgium.
For the day of Tuesday, strong winds are expected this time on the South-West, from Spain, at the start of the day with the depression Fien which will circulate “very quickly from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean basin”, according to Météo-France .
After a very exceptional mildness for a month of January, France is also experiencing the beginnings of a real cooling, with 1 to 5 degrees of minimum in general on Monday.
In the coming days, snow is expected in quantity and at low altitude on most of the massifs, in particular the south of the Massif Central and on the Alps from 600 to 800 m, from 1,000 to 1,200 m on the Pyrenees, and 500 m on the Vosges and the Jura.
