Rain in the south, thunderstorms and cloudy skies in the east of the country… what weather to expect this Wednesday, May 1 ?

Un orage à Lille le 15 avril 2024. (illustration) MAXPPP – STEPHANE MORTAGNE

Pour ce 1er mai, jour de la fête du travail, le beau temps ne sera pas au rendez-vous. Découvrez les prévisions météorologiques de la journée.

From Wednesday morning, rain will extend from Provence to Languedoc, the Massif Central and Center, then quickly to Normandy, indicates Weather- France  which placed 14 departments on orange thunderstorm alert.

In detail, Île-de-France, part of the Grand-Est, Hauts-de-France and Burgundy are concerned. Marne, Yonne and Aube will go on orange alert from 5 p.m., Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne, Val-de-Marne, ;#39;Essonne, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines and Hauts-de-Seine will be affected from 7 p.m. The last departments to join the alert will be Oise, Somme and Aisne from 9 p.m.

In these departments "the storms are expected to be virulent with high intensities of precipitation, hail, squalls" as well as "marked electrical activity", the meteorological agency indicated in its latest bulletin published at 6 a.m. this Wednesday. 

Rain and snow

On the border Alps, a return from the east will bring sustained and regular precipitation with a rain-snow limit around 2,200 meters. It will rain more lightly on the Atlantic coast, except the Breton tip which will find variable skies. Elsewhere the sky will be very cloudy in general, brighter in the North-East.

⛈️ Ce 1er mai sera très arrosé au sud et à l'ouest. Orages forts de la Bourgogne vers la Picardie. ➡ https://t.co/3SZnwKCAD7 pic.twitter.com/6MyIN7FrLz

— Météo Express (@MeteoExpress) April 30, 2024

In the afternoon, to the west the rains will slowly sink into the interior of the country, in the Pays de la Loire, Poitou and the South-West. To the west of the Pyrenees the rain-snow limit will drop from 1,600 to 1,100 meters, to the east from 1,900 to 1,500 meters.

The rains will persist from Normandy to the Centre, Massif central, Languedoc and PACA, they will also reach Rhône-Alpes.

Thunderstorms in the East

In the North and North-East, the weather will deteriorate except in Alsace which will maintain sunny weather.

The sky will become cloudy and storms will break out in the late afternoon and evening in Burgundy-Franche-Comté. They will sometimes be violent with a risk of hail and good gusts of wind, up to 80 km/h. These storms will shift in the evening to Champagne-Ardennes, Ile-de-France then Hauts-de-France during the night.

Temperatures

Minimum temperatures will range from 8 to 12 degrees, locally 6 to 7 in Brittany, 11 to 14 near the Mediterranean. The maximums will range from 13 to 16 degrees in the southwest half of the country, from 14 to 20 degrees from the southeast to the north, from 20 to 25 in the northeast with peaks at 26 or 27 in Alsace.