Published: September 16,2015
At least three people died and at least seven others were injured Wednesday as strong winds and severe thunderstorms, including a tornado, ripped across France. The violent weather was spawned by a low pressure system that stemmed from the remnants of Tropical Storm Henri, a short-lived tropical storm that churned over the North Atlantic Ocean last week.
Radar Recap
Damage was reported in several of France's 96 mainland departments, roughly speaking the French equivalent of counties in the United States. The official French meteorological agency, Météo-France, issued code-orange alerts (the second-highest of three alert levels) for 26 of those departments Wednesday, warning of strong winds, flooding rainfall and thunderstorms. That number dropped to 16 departments Wednesday evening.
The remnants of Henri strengthened into a fairly strong non-tropical low pressure system that approached northwest France and the English Channel on Wednesday. As it intensified, it generated strong southerly winds over a large part of France.
Those southerly winds were magnified by a funneling effect in the Rhone and Saone river valleys of eastern France, which are oriented from north to south. As a result, wind gusts topped 60 mph (100 km/h) for several hours around Lyon, France's third-largest city and the heart of France's second-largest metropolitan area.
The peak gust at Lyon's Bron Airport was 75 mph (121 km/h), which according to La Chaîne Météo is the strongest wind gust ever recorded in Lyon during the month of September.
Two people died as a result of the strong winds in that area. In the commune of Limonest, a man died after winds blew a tree onto his car, crushing the vehicle as seen in the photo on this page.
Gendarmes
stand near the car of a man killed after a tree fell on it during
strong winds on Sept. 16, 2015, in Limonest, near the southeastern city
of Lyon in the Rhone-Alpes region. (Photo credit: PHILIPPE
DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images)Farther north, a 65-year-old man died after being hit by a roof blown off a building in the high winds in the commune of Laiz, Ain department.
While winds whipped up by the large-scale storm system caused considerable damage and casualties in their own right, severe thunderstorms added to the danger. French newspaper Le Monde said an elderly man was found dead in the ruins of a barn in Thieffrain, Aube department, after powerful thunderstorms ripped through that part of east-central France.
In southwestern France, a tornado touched down near the city of Saintes in the Charentes-Maritime department. Dozens of homes were damaged by the tornado, which lasted 45 minutes according to La Chaîne Météo. No injuries were immediately reported. The same department had just been struck by a tornado three days earlier. According to the French severe weather website Keraunos, prior to this week Charentes-Maritime had only had 20 confirmed tornadoes reported since 1840.
#Tornade en #Charente-Maritime : vos premières images envoyées à La Chaîne Météo... @sudouest #vent #tempête #orage
MORE: France When It's Not So Stormy (PHOTOS)
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