France lifts storm alert after tornado-like winds leave 53,000 without power and extensive damage across centre and east

Overnight onslaught

A violent line of thunderstorms, fed by a clash between a fresh air mass and the sweltering heat that had gripped France, swept from west to east on Thursday 16 July. At its peak, 30 departments were placed under orange storm vigilance. Météo-France recorded 141,500 lightning strikes over the course of the day, and localised downpours, wind gusts topping 100 km/h and giant hailstones left a trail of damage from Brittany to the Rhône valley.

By 4 a.m. on Friday 17 July the public forecaster had lifted the orange warning for the last eight south-eastern departments still on alert. "The virulent storm episode is now over," Météo-France stated in its final bulletin.

Tornado near Saint-Étienne and the Loire's toll

A short but intense phenomenon described by the local prefecture as a "mini-tornado" struck the area north of Saint-Étienne early on Thursday evening. Wind gusts overturned two articulated lorries on the A72 motorway, forcing its closure, and tore down power lines. In the Loire department alone, 8,000 households lost electricity at the height of the event, and firefighters carried out 422 call-outs.

"At this stage, fortunately, it is only material damage. Shops and residential roofs were damaged, trees fell on roads, and two trucks were overturned on the A72 motorway, now reopened," said Adrien Sperry, director of cabinet to the prefect of the Loire.

In Perreux (population about 2,000), 1,000 homes were still without power at daybreak after cables were brought down. Municipal crews worked to clear a "phenomenal quantity" of felled trees and secure damaged roofs.

It was very violent, it suddenly went dark. A lot of wind and rain, with lots of small hailstones. The ground was completely white.

Hail, lightning and fires across other regions

In Haute-Savoie, a house at Cranves-Sales caught fire after a direct lightning strike, forcing the evacuation of eight neighbours. Further east in Savoie, gusts tore a 150 m² roof off a building in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, which crashed onto four adjoining homes. An agent of the departmental roads service was hit by a car while clearing a fallen tree at Montailleur and was hospitalised with serious injuries; his condition is not life-threatening.

A "violent storm swept through" Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in Isère, the town hall reported, leaving "trees down, electricity poles ripped out, roofs blown off." The municipality triggered its emergency plan and opened a gymnasium for possible victims. Up to 5,000 households lost power in the area. Further west, at Brive-la-Gaillarde in Corrèze, the Lovely Brive Festival cancelled Charlotte Cardin's concert and evacuated the audience after high winds. In Brittany, hailstones several centimetres across turned roads into white rivers in Rostrenen and nearby towns.

Heatwave recedes as alert lifted

Météo-France also confirmed that the heatwave that fuelled the storms is retreating. As of 6 a.m. on Friday, only ten south-eastern departments remained under orange heat alert: Ardèche, Drôme, Gard, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Haute-Corse, Corse-du-Sud and, from midday, Hérault. Forecasters expect temperatures there to reach 34 °C to 38 °C during the day. The storms brought a dramatic temperature drop elsewhere: Metz fell from 31 °C to 21 °C in an hour, Rennes from 30 °C to 20 °C, and Chaumont from 32 °C to 19 °C.

Clean-up begins

Enedis reported that 53,000 customers were still without electricity at 7 a.m. on Friday, with 25,000 in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and 20,000 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Railway services between Lyon and Roanne remained suspended because of obstructions on the tracks, and the airports in Paris saw 20% of flights cancelled at Orly with delays expected at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle. Firefighters in the Loire alone tallied more than 600 interventions overnight.

"They came with chainsaws and cleared all the trees. But I thought I wouldn't be able to drive away, my windscreen is broken," said Jocelyne, whose car was damaged in the Loire.

No fatalities have been reported. Authorities are now focused on restoring power and clearing debris as the severe weather shifts away from France.