No rain from July 1 to August 15, 28°C at the end of October… A record year 2022 for the climate in Puy-de-Dôme

An abnormally mild spring and autumn, a scorching and dry summer, records that may still be broken today with extremely high temperatures for December 31. A look back at some notable and alarming numbers in a year 2022 characteristic of climate change.

90% of the year above normal

Most of the year occurred with temperatures above normal for the season, sometimes with large deviations from normal. 2022 will be the warmest year in Clermont-Ferrand, ahead of 2020 with an average temperature of 13.7°C against 13.6°C in 2020. “The average maximum temperature is 19.4°C in 2022, compared to 19.1° C in 2020”, refers to Christophe Mertz, forecaster at MeteoNews.

From green to yellow: the striking contrast of satellite images between the summer of 2021 and 2022 in Auvergne and Limousin (August 2022)

110 days above 25°C

Temperatures were unusually mild with 110 days of heat above 25°C: a new all-time record for a year (the old record dated back to 2003 with 99 days). On May 21, it was 30.3°C in Clermont-Ferrand. At Mont Dore, at an altitude of 1,050 m, the absolute heat record was broken with 28.8 ° C on May 22.

Sunshine also broke all records with more than 2,375 hours of sunshine. The old record was dated 2011, with 2,216 hours.

+ 5°C on average in October

28.7°C at 4 pm on October 28 in Clermont-Ferrand, the third highest temperature recorded in mainland France that day. At 13°C above the seasonal norm, it was the highest temperature recorded after October 15.

October 2022 was the warmest October on record, with a deviation from normal of +5°C in average temperature and locally up to +6°C in maximum temperature. The months of May, June, August and November are also among the weakest observed in Puy-de-Dôme.

In Puy-de-Dôme, as in the rest of France, it was the hottest October ever recorded

0 mm of rain from July 1 to August 15

Even if it rains on Sunday June 26, which usually falls in a month in Puy-de-Dôme, it will not be enough. The month of July is particularly dry with a cumulative rainfall of 2.4 mm. “Of course, this is the driest month of July since the beginning of surveys in the department because it has dropped to an average of 55 to 80 mm in a normal month of July”, continues Christophe Mertz. Locally, not a single shower fell between July 1 and August 15, which was a very long and completely dry period.

The drought does not end in Puy-de-Dôme: “We look at the clouds to see if they will fall with us” (November 2022)

Rainfall is low the rest of the time and the year is particularly dry with an average annual total of 465 mm. “This is the lowest annual rainfall total since 1975, behind 1989 (325 mm) and 2015 (379 mm)”, recalled the meteorologist.

20.3°C at Christmas and it’s not over yet…

Very sweet at the end of the year: December 25, 2022 was the second warmest Christmas in history in France: in Aulnat, 20.3°C was recorded and similar temperatures were announced today. According to Météo France, new records could be broken this weekend.

December 25, 2022, second sweetest Christmas in history in France

Marielle Bastide