Five departments in the south-west on an arc going from Gironde to Haute-Garonne as well as a Drôme-Ardèche islet are concerned by this alert valid from Wednesday 2:00 p.m. according to the latest report from Météo France. Twenty-four departments remain on yellow alert, mainly in the west and in the Rhône valley.
In Ile-de-France, the police headquarters announced speed reductions on motorways and expressways due to an episode of ozone pollution scheduled for Wednesday.
In Gironde, the prefecture has placed the department on orange alert for the risk of forest fires from Wednesday, which implies traffic restrictions in forests and the ban on fireworks in predominantly forest municipalities until Monday.
The Morbihan prefecture also banned the sale of fireworks from Wednesday morning due to the risk of fire and drought, an episode which has already earned Deux-Sèvres the mobilization of nearly 200 firefighters on Monday for crop fires.
After the city of Nîmes, which itself has given up firing its July 14 fireworks this year, due to the high risk of fire, bans on these events have also multiplied in the last 24 hours in the South. -Is, mainly for individuals.
Vigilance is the most “severe” in the department of Vaucluse, whose prefecture has announced the total closure of the forest massifs from Wednesday to Sunday, as well as the total ban on the firing of fireworks over the same period.
In the other Mediterranean departments – Gard, Hérault, Var and Alpes-Maritimes, the prefectural bans only target the use of fireworks, firecrackers and other pyrotechnic articles by individuals, and this from Wednesday to Friday. On the side of the Alpes-Maritimes, the prefect however asked the mayors to “systematically seek the opinion” of the firefighters before any fireworks.
In Toulouse, the festivities planned for the national holiday on Thursday will be adapted: the giant concert is delayed by half an hour at 7:00 p.m. so that it starts in the shade. Gourds and bottles of water will be authorized and foggers installed around.
Since Monday, France has been facing a new heat wave, with possible peaks of 39° from Tuesday, an illustration of global warming which will cause summers “increasingly hot, where 35 degrees will be the norm”, according to Météo -France.
We expect at least a duration “of eight to ten days”, with a peak probably “between Saturday and next Tuesday” (July 19), according to Météo-France.
– “48°C in a greenhouse” –
Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne sounded the general mobilization of all her ministers, about “the state of health of the populations, in particular the most vulnerable people”.
In the South-West, already hit by records in mid-June, professions exposed to the heat wave risk have already prepared.
In Tosse (Landes), in his 15,000 m2 greenhouse vegetable farm, Fabien Villenave takes great care to avoid “sunburn” on his tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, peppers, grown under plastic lines: “this requires total monitoring all day”, shorter and more frequent waterings.
In the Bergerac vineyards, “we had 36° yesterday and it’s going up, it’s going up”, assures Anthony Castaing, of the Grange Neuve estate in Pomport (Dordogne), whose 15 current employees are hiring at the moment “at 6 a.m. and stop at 12:00 p.m.
