France issues ‘red alert’ for heat wave in the south

PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) – France issued a “red alert” on Monday afternoon for four southern regions amid a spate of excessively hot weather, with maximum temperatures expected at 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in the rhône valley.

The alert, the most serious in France, allows local authorities to cancel sporting or cultural events and close public facilities if necessary.

The departments affected by the alert, which came into effect at 4:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. GMT), are Rhône, Drome, Ardeche and Haute-Loire, Meteo France said.

It was the sixth time that the French meteorological service has activated a red alert, part of the government’s program to protect the population during periods of extreme weather, and the first occurrence of its kind this year.

“We are prepared for this type of meteorological event. We are only reinforcing prevention,” Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau told reporters. “Our message to the population is maximum vigilance.”

At this stage, French hospitals were not seeing an “extremely massive” increase in the number of people seeking emergency care for heat-related illnesses, it added.

Earlier on Monday, Meteo France issued an orange alert for half of the country’s territory, saying temperatures will reach 35 to 38 C (95 to 100 F) in most affected departments. Peaks of 41 degrees Celsius were expected in the southwest and in the Rhone Valley.

Temperatures are expected to rise to between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius (104 and 108 F) on Tuesday afternoon in the southern departments of Ardeche, Drome, Vaucluse and Gard, Meteo France said.

Separately, French electric company EDF It said it extended the shutdown at its 1.3-gigawatt Golfech 2 nuclear reactor in southwestern France on Monday because the river water used to cool the reactor had exceeded maximum temperatures due to the heat wave.

Some technical problems at the reactor also played a role in delaying the restart until August 25, an EDF spokesman said. The reactor has been out of commission since March 27 and was scheduled to restart on Sunday.

Water temperature levels for cooling purposes at the Bugey plant and another reactor along the Rhone River in the southeast also exceeded government guidance for August 24, Refinitiv data showed. EDF had previously announced production warnings at the Bugey plant.

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