Strange and Extreme Weather, April 2025

There has been strange and extreme weather in the Belleville valley in April 2025. It would have been impossible without global heating.

The heat built up in early April, and on Friday 11th April Météo France announced temperatures 10C warmer than the seasonal average - warmth that would normally be expected in mid-June.

The following week saw a breakdown in the anticyclonic conditions. Heavy snowfalls followed on the night of Wednesday 16th April. On Thursday 17th April, one person was buried near the entrance to the resort of Val Thorens by a spontaneous avalanche.

The avalanche risk was 5/5, and people in Val Thorens and Tignes were asked to stay in their homes and not go outside.

Saint-Martin-de-Belleville (1,450m) had been largely devoid of snow. The new snowfalls turned it white again.