Climate of France
France's climate / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The climate of France is the statistical distribution of conditions in the Earth's atmosphere over the national territory, based on the averages and variability of relevant quantities over a given period, the standard reference period defined by the World Meteorological Organization being 30 years. Climate characterization is based on annual and monthly statistical measurements of local atmospheric data: temperature, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, sunshine, humidity, wind speed. Recurrence and exceptional events are also taken into account.
Located between latitudes 41° 19' N and 51° 04'N, metropolitan France is currently in the temperate zone, characterized by warm summers and moderately cold winters. This classification distinguishes between oceanic (cool summers, mild winters, high precipitation), continental (hot summers, cold winters, low precipitation), Mediterranean (hot, dry summers, mild winters, autumn precipitation), mountain (colder and wetter than the surrounding plains) and altered oceanic (a transition zone between oceanic and mountain climates and semi-continental climate). Extreme temperatures recorded in mainland France are 46.0 °C in Vérargues on 28 June 2019 and −36.7 °C in Mouthe on 13 January 1968.
The climates of France's overseas territories are many and varied, depending on their position on the globe, ranging from the cold oceanic type for the subantarctic islands, to the tropical maritime type for the French West Indies, the equatorial type for French Guiana and the polar maritime type for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. French Polynesia, which extends over 20 degrees of latitude, is divided into 5 types.
These climates have varied greatly in the past, with warm periods (optimums) and cold periods (ice ages). Paleoclimates, which date back to geological times, have been marked by alternating ice ages (around 80,000 years) and warm periods (around 20,000 years) at intervals of around 100,000 years. The last Ice Age was a period of global cooling, or glaciation, which marked the end of the Pleistocene on the entire planet. It began 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago, when the Holocene, the current interglacial period, began. The latter is characterized by the Roman climatic optimum (−300 to +200), the Medieval climatic optimum (900–1300) and the Little Ice Age (1300–1860). The contemporary period (1860 to the present) is marked by the end of the Alpine Little Ice Age (1860-1900-1910), followed by the onset of global warming.
The IPCC's sixth assessment report confirms with certainty the anthropization origin of the global warming already observed. Temperatures in mainland France today are 1.66 °C higher than those measured between 1900 and 1930, with 1.63 °C attributable solely to human activity. Analysis of more precise temperature data between 2010 and 2019 shows that, over this short period, France is warming by 0.1 °C every 3 years. To meet the two objectives of the Paris climate agreement (warming well below 2 °C and preferably limited to 1.5 °C), a sharp and immediate reduction in CO2 emissions is essential, until we reach carbon neutrality, the only way to halt global warming. Reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases, particularly methane, is also relevant. To meet this objective, France, through its climate policy, is deploying various mitigation and adaptation strategies, with specific targets such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% between 1990 and 2030 (20% in 2019) or reducing final energy consumption by 50% in 2050 compared with the 2012 baseline, with an intermediate target of 20% in 2030.