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Published on 11/21/2025 8:22 p.m. Updated on 11/21/2025 9:56 p.m.
Reading time: 2min – video: 2min
2 min
The cold and snow settled in many French departments on Friday November 21. Temperatures are expected to continue to remain very cool throughout the weekend.
This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full.
Cars idling on thick patches of ice, in Orléans (Loiret). Part of the French roads were transformed into an ice rink on Friday November 21. Travel was made difficult due to a cold snap which spread across three-quarters of the country, causing cars to slide in places. As in Loir-et-Cher or on the A43 between Lyon (Rhône) and Chambéry (Savoie), where a truck lay on the track, cutting the highway in one direction and causing major traffic jams.
To avoid damage as much as possible, salt spreaders were busy all day in Loir-et-Cher in particular, because conditions could worsen in the evening. “Next night, no precipitation is forecast, but freezing fog. We are very vigilant about this phenomenon, which can make roads very delicate.”explains Jean-Baptiste Péaud, responsible for road management in Loiret.
Ice and snow since Thursday from Normandy to Aveyron, where there too, temperatures dropped suddenly. “It’s actually surprising, we go from 20 degrees to -4“, comments a resident. The temperature has fallen to -7 degrees in the plains, and this should continue on Saturday: -6 degrees are expected in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), -5 in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), or even -1 degree in Paris and Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).
In Metz (Moselle), the “Great Cold” plan has been launched to provide shelter for the most vulnerable and calls are already numerous. “On average, we make around 400 to 430 calls per day. And there, we have an increase of 60% over the past 48, 72 hours. We were almost at 800 calls yesterday“, reports Julie Leonard, director of 115 in Moselle. During the night, temperatures will be negative almost everywhere in France. Twenty-nine departments are on “Extreme cold” alert and 64 on yellow, snow and ice alert.
