France braces for red alert as heatwave intensifies, with Météo-France warning it could match August 2003 in severity and duration
Sixty départements are under orange heat alert on Saturday, and Météo-France says several could shift to the maximum red level on Sunday as a second western European heatwave in under a month pushes temperatures toward 40°C.
France on the brink of red alert
A mass of extreme heat that settled over France on Thursday is intensifying faster than forecast, and Météo-France warned on Friday that the episode could match or exceed the benchmark heatwave of August 2003 in both duration and severity. Sixty départements will be under orange alert on Saturday, up from 53 on Friday, and the national forecaster said some are likely to be upgraded to red on Sunday, the highest alert tier, which has been triggered only eight times for heat since 2004.
With the elements we have today, if the forecasts are realised next week, this 2026 heatwave would have a duration and severity identical to that of August 2003.
Temperatures on Friday reached 38.2°C at Vassincourt (Meuse) and 38°C at Colmar (Haut-Rhin). Several June records were broken: 37°C at Troyes and Strasbourg, 36°C at Paris and Lyon, 35°C at Lille and Bordeaux, and 34°C at Toulouse. Météo-France expects the heat peak between Sunday and Tuesday, with highs touching 40°C in the west and centre. Nighttime minima in the Paris basin could stay at 25°C or 26°C.
Government activates crisis centre
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will open the inter-ministerial crisis centre (CIC) at the Interior Ministry on Saturday, an operational coordination tool that pulls together the ministers for education, transport, health, territorial planning, the armed forces, agriculture, sport, labour, and culture. Health minister Stéphanie Rist said hospital emergency departments are reinforcing teams on a case-by-case basis. Labour minister Jean-Pierre Farandou urged employers to adjust working hours so outdoor staff start earlier and stop during the hottest part of the day.
Take care of the elderly and the most vulnerable, because these are difficult days.
President Macron had already addressed the nation on Thursday evening, calling the coming days hard. Nearly 41 million people (about 60% of the population) are covered by the orange alert on Saturday, including roughly 1.9 million children under four and 4.4 million people aged 75 or over.
Schools, exams and the Fête de la musique disrupted
The heat hits during the baccalauréat exam period. Oral tests have been disrupted, and 784 schools and collèges (out of 60,000 nationwide) have either cancelled classes, reorganised timetables, or grouped pupils in the coolest rooms. Several municipalities have called off the Fête de la musique, the nationwide street-music festival scheduled for Sunday, because the red alert, if confirmed, was expected to start at noon that day.
The latest forecasts suggest a worsening of alert levels from Sunday, with more départements affected by the orange level and others that could shift to red.
Sophie Voirin, director of Météo-France, added that the early days of the coming week could rank among the hottest days ever recorded on average across metropolitan France, regardless of month. Climatologist François Gourand said Monday could be the single hottest day ever measured nationally because extreme heat is forecast across the entire country.
The European picture
France is not alone. Switzerland placed Basel at alert level 4 out of 5, with temperatures reaching 37°C. High alert levels are also in force in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain. It is the second western European heatwave in under a month. Climatologists link the repeated events unequivocally to climate change driven by the burning of coal, oil, and gas, and the trend is for heatwaves that are longer, more frequent, and more intense.
- Heatwave settles over France; 53 départements under orange alert
- Météo-France warns episode may match August 2003; 60 départements orange on Saturday
- Possible red alert from noon; several towns cancel Fête de la musique
- Predicted heat peak: temperatures above 40°C locally; may be hottest day ever recorded nationally
Mortality and the 2003 benchmark
The August 2003 heatwave killed an estimated 15,000 people in France and more than 60,000 per year across Europe in both 2023 and 2024, according to modelling published in Nature Medicine. 2025 figures are not yet complete. Between 2015 and 2024, nearly all European regions recorded a rise in heat-related mortality compared with 1991–2000, with an average of 52 additional deaths per million inhabitants per year, according to data compiled by the Lancet.
