France has 80 departments in a climate emergency due to heat wave

Published at: 13/08/2026 07:08 PM

France today put 80 of its 99 continental departments on orange alert due to the climate emergency, in the midst of a fifth canicle event this summer.

The Météo France Service forecasts temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius in several regions of this nation, where last June Public Health France recognized almost six thousand deaths above the monthly norm.

Faced with the advance of the canicula, the Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut said yesterday that the government estimates the possible cost of these successive extreme heat phenomena this summer at up to 15 billion euros.

With the exception of a part of the northeast, three Pyrenean departments, Lozère and Haute-Loire in yellow, the rest of France is on orange alert, with another day of very high temperatures.

This heat wave episode “reaches its peak for Thursday and Friday”, estimates Météo France.

Mazo News Team