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After several days of intense heat, large parts of France were hit by a major outbreak of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday night as powerful supercells swept north-east across the country.
A low pressure system that originated near Portugal tracked over the unusually warm Bay of Biscay towards northern France late on Wednesday, bringing a strong upper-level disturbance over land that had been intensely heated through the day. As a result, several long-lived supercells formed, producing large hailstones, frequent lightning, damaging winds and torrential rainfall.
Hailstones of up to 8cm in diameter caused significant damage to property, crops and vehicles, while rainfall totals up to 150mm in places brought flash flooding, including in Paris. Ferocious winds also brought down pylons and trees, killing two people and bringing power cuts to 110,000 homes.
Just north-east of Paris, a gust of 140kph was recorded, the strongest of the outbreak, while supercells elsewhere produced winds up to 126kph. One especially long-lived storm sustained gusts of 90-135kph over several hundred miles as it travelled from the south-west corner of the country to its north-east.
Over the course of the night, more than 70,000 lightning strikes were also recorded. A lightning strike recorded in Deux-Sévres in the commune of La Peyratte had an intensity of 517 kiloamperes, 20 times the average strike intensity.
Although temperatures reduced a little after the storms, they are expected to rise again and reach the high 30s Celsius in the south of France over the weekend before this spreads northwards into much of the rest of the country next week.
Meanwhile, Australia’s south-east coast is continuing to experience chilly conditions as its first winter month concludes. An area of low pressure centred to the south of the country earlier this week allowed cold air to push in from the south.
Temperatures fell up to 10C below average in parts of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, with widespread frosts and snow predicted. Across the Australian Alps, ski resorts have reported up to half a metre of snow in just a couple of days. This follows the country’s first snow storm of the season, which occurred in the first week of June and gave about a metre of snow to some resorts in just four days.
The low pressure system earlier in the week also brought strong, gusty winds to the south-east. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology issued several warnings earlier this week for damaging winds, with gusts of up to 120kph expected. These winds have contributed to large waves and high tides, which have led to coastal erosion and infrastructure damage.
Although high pressure has built in places, cold conditions are expected to remain for much of eastern Australia in the coming days.
