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There are 18 French departments under orange heatwave alerts this afternoon (August 10), with southwestern areas being most acutely affected by the high temperatures.

The departments are: Finistère, Morbihan, Loire-Atlantique, Vendée, Deux-Sèvres, Charente-Maritime, Charente, Gironde, Dordogne, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gers, Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne.

A further 39 departments in western and southeastern France are also under yellow alerts for heat and, in some places, storms.

You can find out more on the Météo France

At 05:00 this morning, the departments affected by the orange warning were experiencing temperatures of 15-21C, with Biscarrosse (Landes) seeing 24C heat.

Maximum temperatures have declined slightly in the south east of France today, but 34-37C heat was expected for Pays-de-la-Loire and Poitou-Charentes, and 36-38C for the rest of the south west, with some spikes of 39-40C.

Overnight tonight, it should not fall below 18-21C in the areas worst affected by the heat.

Tomorrow, the heat is set to spread towards the north and north west, and minimum temperatures will rise slightly, with the Paris region set to see highs of 35C. Some areas could see temperatures exceeding 40C.

A stormy weather system should arrive from the west over the weekend, and temperatures are forecast to fall from Sunday (August 14).

The current heatwave warning will last until 06:00 tomorrow morning at least.

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