As you may have noticed, the sun is shining and temperatures are very high for September in Paris. As a result, Parisians are looking for coolness at all costs, in the gardens or on the terrace, after a summer of mixed results. For several days now, the mercury has been topping 30 degrees in the capital, and this is not expected to stop until the middle of next week. A heat record of 36.5 degrees was even set on Friday September 8, the day of the Rugby World Cup opening match!
In 2021, September had already been very hot, but before that, the record temperature for the start of the new school year had not been exceeded since 1948, when the reference weather station in Parc Montsouris was moved to a new shelter. The European Copernicus service also indicated that the summer of 2021 had been the hottest ever recorded in Europe, but this has since changed, with 2023 unfortunately off to a good start.
Friday was therefore not only the hottest day of the summer, but also of the year in the capital. In the Jardin du Luxembourg, it was 36.5 degrees at 4pm, and35.1 degrees at Montsouris.It didn't get any better during the night, when the temperature struggled to come down, with 30 degrees at midnight. Other towns in the Paris region broke their previous records, including Magnanville and Joinville-le-Pont. The capital is still under a heatwave alert (vigilance orange canicule), so be careful, and stay hydrated!
