What is the climate and weather of France?

Answer 1

Mainland France, by its latitude, sits within the temperate zone. As most of Europe but first and foremost, France is open on Atlantic on the West and enjoys maritime influence, which gives moderate winters, somewhat cold in certain places but mild in others, temperate summers and regular precipitation. The dominant oceanic winds explain the mildness of the French climate. The rather low altitude on the west allows the Atlantic rains to travel eastward. The regions around the Mediterranean Sea, 'protected' by mountain ranges, have more irregular rains, but their temperatures are still moderate.

In the plains, France enjoys an average annual temperature between 9,5 °C in the North-East and 15,5 °C on the mediterranean coast. The difference in the average temperatures between Winter and Summer goes from 9 °C on the West coast, to 19 °C in the easternmost region of Alsace or in the valleys of the Alps. Everywhere the difference is less than 20 °C, the usual threshold for a climate to be considered continental.

The lay of the land is generally important in the distribution of the climatic zones: mountains often mark a neat change while the climate undergoes only minor changes on several hundred kilometres in the plains. On mainland France the climatic zones are:

* the oceanic, mild climate, very neat in the West;

* that oceanic climate becomes a little more continental on the East and within the mountain ranges but no point of France has a real continental climate as defined by climatologists.

* South-Eastern France has a mediterranean climate due to the mountainous barriers sheltering it from oceanic influences.

* in limited parts of mountain ranges (Alps, Pyrénées, Jura, Massif Central), the alpine climate may be present.

The mean temperature is about 11° C (53° F ) at Paris and 15° C (59° F ) at Nice. In central and southern France, annual rainfall is light to moderate, ranging from about 68 cm (27 in) at Paris to 100 cm (39 in) at Bordeaux. Rainfall is heavy in Brittany, the northern coastal areas, and the mountainous areas, where it reaches more than 112 cm (44 in)