Eight departments have been removed from orange vigilance according to a bulletin released overnight from Thursday to Friday.

“This Friday, a new episode of strong thunderstorms is setting up, from the Tarn and Aveyron to the Northern Alps”, writes Météo France.

In the northeast, “the storms have evacuated to the north, and a few localized storm cells still concern Aube”, adds Météo France, which says it has noted gusts of wind reaching 78 km / h in Charleville-Mézières ( 08).

From the department of Tarn to those of Savoie, Météo France notes a lull in the area concerned with a few passages of showers.

But, “further west and in northern Spain, the rainy-stormy activity is starting to resume slowly”, adds the same source.

This situation requires “particular vigilance given the risk of violent phenomena”, warned Météo-France, such as gusts of wind of the order of 70 to 90 km / h, even very locally around 100 km / h or more.

Violent thunderstorms, sometimes accompanied by hail but of small size, already affected the Southwest earlier Thursday, with accumulations of rain observed from 40 to 60 mm in less than 40 minutes, and the number of departments in orange vigilance was mounted up to 37.

Since Monday already, violent storms accompanied by hail have caused significant material damage in several departments of the center-east, in particular in Saône-et-Loire, in Nièvre or in Allier, as well as in the South-West, where vineyards were affected.

This stormy episode comes after an exceptionally early heat wave that hit the whole country from the middle of last week, continuing in the East at the start of the week.

Orange “heat wave” vigilance was lifted for the last departments concerned on Wednesday at the end of the day.