Cold hits France after months of unusually warm temperatures

A woman and a child on a snow-covered street in Mulhouse, eastern France, as temperatures drop across the country, 8 January 2024. © Sebastien Bozon/AFP

After months of record warm temperatures, France is cold, and will get colder in the coming days as frozen air masses that brought record low temperatures to Scandinavia last week head south. Several French prefectures have initiated measures to protect vulnerable people exposed to the cold.

While climate change has brought some of the warmest months on record to France, it does not mean winter has disappeared altogether.