🇫🇷France

Continental France extends from 41°20′ to 51°05′N, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and English Channel to the west and north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Alps and Pyrenees mountain barriers to the east and south. Key landforms include the Paris Basin, the Massif Central rising to Puy de Sancy at 1,886 m, the Vosges, the Jura, the French Alps crowned by Mont Blanc at 4,805 m (Western Europe's highest peak), the Pyrenees with Vignemale at 3,298 m, and the Mediterranean coast including Corsica.

This topographic diversity produces a strikingly varied climate spectrum: oceanic Cfb dominates the Atlantic west across Brittany, Normandy, and the Gironde; a more continental Cfb characterizes the east around Strasbourg, Dijon, and Nancy; Mediterranean Csa and Csb prevail in the south from Marseille and Nice to Montpellier and Perpignan; alpine ET and EF climates appear on the high Alpine and Pyrenean summits; and cool-temperate upland climates mark the Massif Central and Vosges.

Paris sees January highs of 8°C with nights of 3°C and July highs of 26°C with 640 mm of rainfall distributed evenly through the year. Brest on the Atlantic coast sees January highs of 10°C with nights of 5°C and July highs of 21°C with 1,150 mm of precipitation and frequent winter gales. Marseille exhibits hot Mediterranean conditions with January highs of 12°C and nights of 4°C and July highs of 31°C with only 510 mm of rain and strong Mistral winds funneling down the Rhône valley.

Nice records January highs of 13°C with nights of 6°C and July highs of 28°C with 790 mm of precipitation. Strasbourg displays continental influence with January highs of 5°C and nights around 0°C and July highs of 26°C with 630 mm. Mont Aigoual in the Cévennes is the wettest place in France, and the region sees extreme rainfall events such as about 680 mm in 24 hours at Anduze on 8–9 September 2002.

Major climate events include the 2003 European heatwave with approximately 15,000 deaths and peaks above 44°C, the 2019 heatwave that set the national record of 46.0°C at Vérargues on 28 June 2019, the exceptionally hot summer of 2022, the 2010 Var flash floods, the 2018 Aude floods, and the 2021 spring frost that affected vineyards across multiple regions.

Our archive covers 54 French cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Nîmes, with average highs around 30.5°C, while Mulhouse has the coldest January nights, with average lows near −1.1°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.8°C.