After the successive heatwaves the city has experienced, thunderstorms occurred this week in Paris, and with a heavy storm on Tuesday August 16, 2022, in the evening. Thunderstorms and harsh winds and flood-like rainfalls flooded the streets and metro stations in a few hours. Following this sudden bad weather, the Seine’s level increased by circa 35cm (13.77in)!
This unexpected episode – as the Paris area was only in yellow vigilance – dropped about 40 millimeters of rain in 90 minutes, Météo France stated. It equals 70% of a month’s worth of rain, and this is much more than what Paris experienced between June 30 and August 15, 2022. Inevitably, rain feel on dry or concrete ground and could not evacuate properly.
According to La Chaîne Météo, this is even the strongest rainfall in 24h “since the 72mm of water from the harsh thunderstorm on June 11, 2018 in the city”. As a matter of fact, Paris has not experienced such a storm in months, and the station at the top of the Eiffel Tower measured winds up to 104km/h (64.66mph). Consequently, the Seine almost immediately doubled its flow, from 93 m3/s to 175 m3/s!
En direct de la station Balard #Paris pic.twitter.com/YCZ7KdRFh9
— Clément Parrot (@CParrot) August 16, 2022
Tweet reads: “Live from the Balard station”
Towards another heatwave in late August in France?
Shall one fear another heatwave before Fall? According to Météo France forecasts, temperatures are likely to rise again from Wednesday August 24, 2022, in the country. [Read more]
