Fresh breeze in the South: what is the “polar shift” which will happen this week ?

Temperatures will drop again from this Monday, June 10, 2024 (illustration photo). YVES ESTIVALS – Midi Libre

A cold current will affect the whole of France from this Monday, June 10, 2024, especially in the morning. The South will be particularly impacted.

We thought that summer was going to set in, but no, still not. Temperatures will drop again. Everywhere and "especially in the South", underlines François Jobard, forecaster at Météo-France, on BFM.

"Cold ahead ! A polar shift will allow very cold air to rush into France next week. Conversely, a very strong heat wave is to be feared in Greece and Turkey", announces La Chaîne Météo on X.

🥶 #Froid devant ! Un décrochage polaire va permettre à de l'air très froid de débouler sur l'hexagone la semaine prochaine. À l'inverse, une très forte vague de #chaleur est à redouter sur la Grèce et la Turquie. pic.twitter.com/rU4LVeuDkS

— La Chaîne Météo (@lachainemeteo) June 7, 2024

Temperatures are falling

After the storms this weekend, seven departments in the south-east were placed on orange rain-flood or thunderstorm alert this Sunday, June 9, temperatures dropped drastically. Cool weather sets in over a large part of France from this Monday, June 10, 2024, due to a "polar shift".

This time is notably dictated by a polar jet stream, jet-stream, in English, a high altitude air current, which will experience a deformation , explains Le Parisien. This week, the current will plunge from north to south, allowing air from the poles to touch France.

"It will be cool"

The coolness should not reach particularly remarkable levels, because we will remain far from the low temperature records for the period, underlines Météo-France.

"It won't be cold, it will be cool, says Gilles Matricon, forecaster for La Chaîne Météo at Parisian. This has already been the case for several days in the north of France and it will spread to the whole country."

Cover up in the morning

It's especially in the morning that you'll need to wrap up well because the temperatures are forecast to be below 10 degrees over a large part of France.

This situation will contrast enormously with a sequence of extremely hot weather from Libya to the Balkans and from Egypt to Turkey and Russia, underlines Météo-France. Heat records for the period are clearly threatened with maximums reaching 40 to 45 °C in places.