PARIS | Thirty-eight consecutive days above seasonal norms: France recorded a spring heat record, beating the series of 37 consecutive days dating from April-May 2020, said Thursday Météo-France.

And “with the temperatures expected at least until Saturday, this record is set to be beaten again”, warns the public establishment.

This is a record for the number of consecutive days when the average temperature in France exceeds normal every day, in this case the reference period is 1981-2010.

On Wednesday, the day when this series started on April 11 was exceeded, several heat records had been beaten or equaled in the south of the country.

Since the beginning of the month, the average temperature "anomaly" observed in France has reached slightly more than 3°C and Météo-France considers it "very likely" that May 2022 will become the hottest month of May since the post- war, thus dethroning the record of 2011, which had recorded an anomaly of 1.85°C.

With the planet's climate change, periods of heat are set to become more frequent and tend to set in earlier in the spring.

In a tweet, Météo-France explains that the peaks are observed not only at the hottest of the day, but also at the lowest. Thus, subject to official confirmation at the end of the day, the establishment observed Thursday morning that “the national thermal indicator of minimum temperatures could also have broken a record”.

This episode of heat accentuates concerns about the risk of drought.

The government published a map on Wednesday where 22 departments appear in red, that is to say with a “very probable” risk by the end of the summer, mainly in the south-east and west.