Météo-France has issued an orange warning for violent winds across 15 departments for Friday, 23 October, as Storm Austen reaches the country's north-west, according to CNews. The alert was announced in the national forecaster's 4pm bulletin on Thursday.
The departments covered by the warning are Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Manche, Morbihan, Loire-Atlantique, Calvados, Orne, Seine-Maritime, Eure, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, Somme, Pas-de-Calais and Nord.
Austen is expected to arrive over Brittany and the Cotentin peninsula during the night from Thursday to Friday, then spread across the northern half of the country on Friday morning, CNews reports.
Why it matters
The orange level is the second-highest in France's four-tier warning system, and it signals conditions that can disrupt travel and pose a risk to people outdoors. This is the first named storm of the season, and it arrives with several regions braced for gusts well above 100 km/h inland.
Météo-France's bulletin describes a strengthening southerly wind over western Brittany on Thursday evening, swinging to west to south-west overnight and picking up further. Gusts are forecast at 100 to 110 km/h inland and up to 130 to 140 km/h along exposed coastlines, according to the forecaster.
Those strong winds are then expected to push into inland Brittany and Manche overnight, before reaching all the Norman departments late in the night and through Friday morning.
A storm that shifts east and north through the day
The episode is forecast to continue into Friday morning, with the strongest winds then moving towards departments further east and north during the day, including Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France, as the depression tracks across the country, Météo-France said.
For Friday as a whole, the forecaster expects gusts of roughly 100 to 110 km/h inland, with the Paris region more likely to see 80 to 90 km/h and locally up to 100 km/h. Coastal areas are forecast to reach around 120 km/h.
Manche stands out in the bulletin as the department most exposed to the episode. Météo-France forecasts gusts of up to 120 km/h in its interior and 130 to 140 km/h on the coast, with the wind only really beginning to ease late in the afternoon.
Coastal communities prepare
Local authorities and maritime users in the affected areas have been getting ready. Ouest-France reports that in the Lorient area of Morbihan, boat owners were sent text messages warning them ahead of the first storm of the season.
Residents in the 15 departments are advised to keep up with the latest bulletins, secure loose objects outdoors and take care near the coast and in wooded areas while the strongest gusts pass through.
The orange warning covers Friday only, and Météo-France is expected to update its assessment as the depression moves across the country.
