Only limited damage has been reported so far and one minor injury has been reported in Finistère, in Plouédern, following a traffic accident caused by a falling tree, the prefecture said.
Three departments in the northwest have gradually entered red wind vigilance since midnight: Finistère at midnight, Côtes d’Armor at 2 a.m., then Manche an hour later.
But in its bulletin published shortly before 3:30 a.m., Météo France warns that a further strengthening of the wind is expected in the second part of the night in the departments on red alert with very powerful gusts.
Numerous falling trees have led to the temporary closure of certain major roads, notably the RN12 in Côtes d’Armor, and the RN 165 in Morbihan. Power cuts were also recorded in several departments, including Finistère, Morbihan and Manche.
– Exceptional bursts –
In Finistère, Météo-France recorded around 3 a.m. 193 km/h in Plougonvelin, where Pointe Saint-Mathieu is located, 171 km/h in Lanvéoc, on the Crozon peninsula, and 156 km/h in Brest. “The wind gusts are exceptional over Brittany and many absolute records are broken” locally, indicates Météo-France on X (formerly Twitter).
In Morbihan, the prefecture indicated that gusts reached 164 km/h on the island of Groix, 152 km/h in Belle-Ile and 147 km/h in Lorient.
“Gusts greater than 100 km/h extend from Vendée to West Calvados via Sarthe. At the stations of the Atlantic arc and the west coast of the Manche department, gusts have been observed around 150 to 170 km/h or even more on the exposed semaphores”, indicates Météo-France.
The orange “waves-submersions” vigilance is now activated for the coastlines of Finistère, Morbihan, Loire-Atlantique and Vendée, specifies Météo-France. Waves of eight to ten meters are expected on part of the Atlantic coast.
According to Ouest-France, planes in difficulty above Nantes airport in the evening due to winds were finally diverted to Toulouse.
Oyster farmers put their bags of oysters under shelter as storm Ciaran approaches, in Ars-en-Ré (Charente-Maritime), November 1, 2023 AFP PHOTO / YOHAN BONNET
Emmanuel Macron joined the numerous messages from the authorities on Wednesday evening urging caution in the face of this climatic event. “Don’t take any risks. Stay at home and check on your isolated loved ones,” he wrote on social media.
The number of departments placed on orange vigilance, for waves-submersion, wind or rain-flooding, is 31.
Among the new departments classified in orange are part of Ile-de-France, including Paris, for violent winds.
The entire coastline from Pas-de-Calais to the Pyrénées-Atlantique is now on orange wave-submersion alert for Thursday, as are Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and the Alpes-Maritimes. Southern Corsica is also on orange alert for thunderstorms as well as rain-flooding.
Almost everywhere on the coast, calls for caution, particularly for walkers and boaters, have increased.
These submersion waves are particularly devastating on the coast where careless walkers are regularly swept away.
Due in particular to the risk of falling trees due to violent winds, the transport sector will operate slowly on Thursday in the west of the country.
“On the road front, we have taken measures via the prefectures to ban the circulation of heavy goods vehicles (…) This will be continued throughout the day on Thursday, particularly throughout the Brittany region,” said the Minister for Transport. , Clement Beaune.
The Ministry of the Interior then clarified that Ille-et-Vilaine, on orange alert, was not affected by this traffic ban.
The SNCF announced that it was planning “preventive stops of rail traffic” on Thursday morning on part of the RER A, several Transilien lines (L, J, U and partially N) and the T13 tram.
Rain and wind in Arcachon (Gironde), before the arrival in western France of storm Ciaran, November 1, 2023 PHOTO AFP / Philippe LOPEZ
The airports of Brest and Quimper, in particular, “will not be in service between the end of the afternoon and at least the morning of tomorrow”, he added.
For trains, TER traffic in Brittany, Normandy, Hauts-de-France, Pays de la Loire and Center Val de Loire will be interrupted from Wednesday evening to Friday morning. As for the TGVs, if 90% of them should run, traffic will be interrupted on the Paris-Le Mans and Paris-Nantes axes.
In addition to the winds, Météo-France is concerned about a “rainy episode giving significant amounts of precipitation in a short time on already saturated soils”, including possible falls of still very leafy trees.
Rain in Arcachon (Gironde), before the arrival in western France of storm Ciaran, November 1, 2023 PHOTO AFP / Philippe LOPEZ
Extreme weather events (cyclones, heatwaves, floods, droughts, etc.) are natural phenomena. But global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity can amplify them.
Concerning more precisely the wave-submersion phenomena on the coasts, these risk becoming more dangerous with the rise in sea level linked to the melting of the ice, particularly during storms.
2023-11-01 21:46:48
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