A tornado tore through the village of Pontarion in Creuse, central France, around 17:00 LT on Thursday, March 9, 2023, leaving behind a trail of destruction to infrastructure and buildings. The violent weather caused significant damage to a number of houses, leaving roofs and windows shattered, while telephone lines were also damaged.
A powerful low pressure system, named Storm Gerard by Météo France, brought heavy rainfall, strong winds, and thunderstorms to northern and western France on Sunday, January 15, and Monday, January 16, 2023, resulting in significant weather-related incidents and causing casualties and damage. This is the 22nd named storm of the 2022/23 European windstorm season, including two ex-hurricanes (Danielle and Martin).
Strong thunderstorms affected large parts of France on October 23, 2022, producing violent wind gusts and tornadoes. The storms hit after several days of warm weather, exceptional in duration for this time of year, with a depression named Beatrice by the Spanish meteorological service.
A huge fire broke out on Sunday, September 25, 2022, at Rungis International Market – one of the world’s largest produce markets – in Paris, France destroying its fruit and vegetable warehouse. The market supplies Paris and its surrounding with much of its fresh food.
A severe thunderstorm with winds gusting up to 224 km/h (139 mph) hit Corsica, France on August 18, 2022, leaving 5 people dead and 13 injured, of which two critically. The same system hit continued into northern Italy, leaving 2 people dead and several injured.
Violent thunderstorms brought heavy rain and strong winds to parts of France on August 16, 2022, bringing temporary relief to the drought-stricken country.
France is battling a massive fire in its drought-stricken southwestern region of Gironde for the third day in a row. On August 11, officials are warning that new flare-ups could cause it to spread further.
French National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA) is warning the country will most likely have a shortage of milk in the coming months as a result of the severe drought affecting the country.
Severe thunderstorms brought heavy rain and up to tennis ball-sized hail to France on June 3 and 4, 2022, wreaking havoc in vineyards across large parts of the country, leaving thousands of homes without power, one person dead and 15 injured – two of them seriously.
France has culled a record 16 million chickens, ducks and other poultry since November 2021 in one of the most severe bird flu outbreaks in years. In 2021, the country saw nearly 500 outbreaks and culled 3.5 million animals, mostly ducks.
