Orange alert in the Alpes-Maritimes: what happened?

This Friday, August 21st, until 10 in the morning, Météo-France kept the Alpes-Maritimes department on orange alert. The South-East of France faced severe weather before the alert was lifted. Here are some of them:

The day began under a grey and turbulent sky for the residents of Alpes-Maritimes, “placed on orange alert for storms and flood-rain” until 10 in the morning by Météo-France. Violent wind gusts, very intense rainfall, sometimes hail and strong electrical activity characterized this event, according to the latter.

Intense storm activity

Although the alert has now been lifted, this turbulent passage left some traces. Météo-France thus reported that “122.8 millimeters of rain fell, shattering the previous monthly record set in 2023 of 49.8 millimeters.” In just one hour, the municipality of Le Mas experienced three weeks’ worth of rain.

The Nice Metropolis for its part reported 130 millimeters of rain at Levens, 60 millimeters at Carros and 44 millimeters of precipitation at Nice.

Storm activity was particularly violent from Thursday afternoon onwards. Keraunos recordings, the French observatory for tornadoes and severe storms, show activity of approximately 1,800 lightning strikes recorded in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Vacationers evacuated, limited damage

The prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, Jean-Marie Girier, ordered the evacuation of all campsites located in the red zone overnight.

In Pégomas, 200 people were thus sheltered in a hall opened by the municipality. A vacationer told BFMTV that “around 3:30 in the morning, someone came knocking on the mobile home door to make us leave. I grabbed a small bag, my cat, and I left.” This situation, which caused her stress, ultimately ended with “water, coffee, croissants” from municipal services. The same applied to the city of Antibes which housed 155 vacationers.

The material damage remains reassuring and “no major damage” was reported according to the prefecture on X. In Nice, it was only from 10 in the morning that public parks could gradually reopen, following “prior inspection and securing of each site“ warned the city’s mayor.

According to BFMTV Côte d’Azur, the precipitation caused “runoff and the flushing of rainwater networks and valleys”, forcing several municipalities to close access to the sea. The municipality of Antibes-Juan-les-Pins did so to “protect the health and safety of swimmers, until Saturday, August 22nd at 8 a.m.”, it specified.

As for Gourdon, the rupture of the pipeline at 4:45 p.m. following a rock collapse, occurring during heavy rainfall, lasted only an hour. The municipality can now be resupplied with water normally, according to Ici Azur.