In the last week France has experienced a significant weather shift following an intense heatwave, with a wave of thunderstorms bringing heavy rainfall to the southwest and central regions.
Within 10 days of the intense heatwave that affected much of France ending, a wave of thunderstorms bringing intense rainfall and lightening has brought a significant chage in the weather in south west and central France in recent days.
Météo-France issued multiple orange alerts for severe thunderstorms (orages). The alerts highlighted risks of heavy rainfall accumulating in short periods, strong wind gusts, and localized hail.
In the department of Allier, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, both Charmes and Vichy received record breaking figures of 100 mm of rainfall significantly above the previous amounts for a 24 hour period.
🌧️🌧️🥇Des records absolus de pluie (tous mois confondus) ont été battus en Auvergne, notamment à #Vichy où il est tombé 119 mm en 24 heures, l'ancien record a été pulvérisé (80 mm le 24/07/1989). L'ouverture de cette station météo date de 1941. pic.twitter.com/6fnNnwuqxf
— La Chaîne Météo (@lachainemeteo) August 28, 2025
The storms are the result of cooler air masses moving in from the Atlantic and interacting with the residual warm humid air, from the latest heatwave, creating significant atmospheric instability. This clash of air masses led to strong upward convection, fueling the development of powerful thunderstorms along a southwest-to-northeast band.
