© Francoise Blanchard/PresseOcean
Powerful windstorm batters France on March 6, 2017.
Severe weather, including snowfalls and hurricane-force winds, has been affecting the central-southern and south-eastern areas of the France over the past 48 hours, causing at least two fatalities. Severe weather is forecast to continue affecting the country over the next 24 hours. The storm, named Zeus, will then exit into the Mediterranean Sea and rapidly deepen as it moves toward Italy. Severe to extremely severe wind gusts are expected this evening and tonight.
This powerful windstorm was produced by rapidly deepening cyclone coming from the British Isles toward Northern France this morning. An intense sting jet has developed within the cyclone, Severe Weather Europe reports, traveling right across Brittany, NW France.Meteo France has updated the number of departments on Orange alert to 31 this morning and urged residents to be vigilant, stay off the rooftops and secure objects that are liable to be blown away.
The departments on Orange alert, as of Monday morning, March 6, are: Cantal, Corse-du-Sud, Haute-Corse, Loire, Haute-Loire, Lozère, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Allier, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Cher, Corrèze, Côtes-d'Armor, Creuse, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Alpes-Maritimes, Dordogne, Gironde, and Var.
The agency said that significant damage could be caused by the wind as well as disruptions to local traffic. There is also a possibility of cuts to electricity and telephone lines, it warned.
The town of Camaret, in Brittany, saw record-breaking winds of 193 km/h (120 mph) during Monday morning. Winds reaching 191 km/h (119 mph) were recorded in Ouessant, 180 km/h (112 mph) in l'Ile de Groix and 170 km/h (105 mph) in Pointe du Raz.
Comment: Some 600,000 properties lost electricity across France, according to power distributor Enedis, the highest such number since a monster storm in 1999 that left scores dead and three million households without power.