Two people are in a critical condition and dozens more injured after a powerful tornado ripped through southwestern France.
It struck Aude late on Monday with gusts of up to 117km per hour, damaging more than 300 homes and causing chaos and destruction in its path.
At least 39 people were injured, according to authorities, 15 of whom were taken to hospital and two who are fighting for life.
Footage shared on social media shows the winds swirling above the village of Verzeille with homes caught and windows smashed as a result.
The strongest winds hit the commune of Pomas and its 1,000 residents, according to the local administration.
“A tornado of rare intensity struck the Aude region late yesterday afternoon, severely damaging the village of Pomas,” French interior minister Laurent Nunez said on X in the aftermath.
Part of the region had been on an orange alert just as the tornado struck. It had formed at roughly 5.20pm late on Monday afternoon and by 7.30pm over 2,800 households in the Aude area were without electricity.
“More than 120 firefighters are on the scene” the prefecture of the Aude department said on Friday, adding that “work to make the buildings safe is under way.”
The weather hit just as the summer’s record-breaking heatwave gave way to thunderstorms. France faced its driest year on record with over 330,000 people evacuated across the country due to the spread of wildfires.
Western Europe set a new average temperature record for the June/July period that had previously been set in 2022, according to Europe’s climate agency, Copernicus.
Across the globe, 2026 has set records as the third-hottest behind 2024 and 2025, according to climate statistics.
Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extra-polar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, according to Copernicus.
This was partially fuelled by El Nino conditions in the equatorial Pacific, it said.
“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe; the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought.
As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
A study released by the World Weather Attribution group found that human-caused warming made the hot, dry and windy conditions that fuelled the fires at least twice as likely in southwestern France and at least 20 times as likely in central Spain. The scientists described both figures as conservative estimates.
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