Weather Alert: Heavy precipitation near the Pyrenees, floods in Pas-de-Calais and thunderstorms in Corsica

Situation

A new disturbance crossed Pas-de-Calais this Monday bringing new sustained rains. In an already complicated context with still high river levels and saturated soils, new floods have occurred, at lower levels than the last two weeks. Weather conditions are improving, with showers becoming lighter and less frequent. The rivers will be in decline over the next few hours.

Near the Pyrenees, the rains intensify overnight and continue throughout the day on Tuesday, to the west of the Pyrenees chain and as far as Ariège. The accumulations expected between now and this evening in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Ariège are 15 to 30 mm on average in the plains, but 40 to 80 mm on the relief and locally 100 mm. With the cooling of the air mass at altitude and isothermal phenomena, the snow falls between 1200 and 1500 meters. The quantities of snow forecast for the episode range from 20 to 30 cm around 1500 meters and almost 60 cm from 2000 meters.
Haute-Corse is also affected this evening and next night by the passage of violent stormy showers which could cause up to 1 month of precipitation, i.e. 60 to 100 mm with risks of runoff and flooding.

Observation

This Tuesday

At 12, rain continues to fall abundantly in the Pyrenees with totals over 24 hours now reaching 60 mm in Cambo-les-Bains (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), 57 mm in Iraty (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), 50 mm in Banca (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) . The snow accumulates from 1200 to 1400 meters on the massifs with already several tens of centimeters recorded in places.

At 8 o’clock, the rains are sustained in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques with totals over the last 24 hours reaching 35 mm in Iraty, 33 mm in Cambo-les-Bains, 30 mm in Accou, 29 mm in Banca and even 26 mm in Mendive. Snow falls in abundance above 1300 meters.

Evolution

This afternoon : showers follow one another until the evening, but begin to weaken in the second part of the afternoon. The mountain remains clogged with significant quantities of snow, which will cause traffic difficulties above 1200-1300 meters.

Tonight and next night : the rains weaken significantly on the Pyrenees chain, as well as the snowfall which is mainly concentrated from the Hautes-Pyrénées to Ariège. In Haute-Corse, heavy stormy showers follow one another. The northeast wind blows strongly on the coasts with gusts of more than 80 km/h.

Wednesday morning : fairly weak but continuous precipitation continues to the east of the Pyrenees, with a rain-snow limit around 1200 meters while stormy showers clearly decrease in intensity over Upper Corsica.

List of departments concerned