Overview
- Météo‑France escalated alerts over the weekend, placing seven southern departments under orange heat warning for Sunday and expanding that orange vigilance to 16 departments for Monday.
- Forecasters expect daytime highs of around 35–37°C with local peaks near 38–40°C in parts of the Languedoc‑Roussillon and other southern areas, and they warn the hot air mass could spread north over coming days.
- Strong winds, low humidity and the heat have produced a 'very high' forest‑fire risk in several southern departments and have fed large active blazes, including a Trévillach fire of roughly 1,000 hectares that officials say is no longer in free propagation and a rapidly growing fire in the Drôme attended by hundreds of firefighters.
- Authorities have closed or restricted access to vulnerable forests, mobilised ground crews and aircraft such as Canadairs, urged the public to avoid risky behaviour that often starts fires, and warned that emergency services face prolonged pressure following the June heatwave.
- June was the warmest on record in France and caused a sharp rise in deaths during its peak week, which officials say raises particular concern for vulnerable people if the current episode continues or expands to more departments.