Severe overnight thunderstorms across several regions of France have claimed two lives and left approximately 53,000 households without electricity, according to local reports on Friday.
The severe weather led to fatal incidents in different parts of the country. In Saint-Victurnien, located in the Haute-Vienne department, a woman was killed by a falling tree. In Dolomieu, within the Isere department, a man was found dead after a lightning strike ignited a fire in a workshop.
Power outages were heavily concentrated in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. According to the electricity distribution operator Enedis, about 25,000 customers in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and another 20,000 in Nouvelle-Aquitaine remained without power on Friday morning.
The storms brought strong winds, large hail, and intense lightning to several departments, including Loire, Isere, Haute-Savoie, and Correze. In the Loire department, firefighters conducted 422 emergency interventions to deal with damaged roofs, fallen trees blocking roads, and vehicles struck by debris. At the peak of the storm, up to 8,000 homes in Loire lost electricity, and regional train services between Lyon and Roanne faced disruptions on Friday.
In neighboring areas, around 5,000 households in Isere lost power, while a home in Haute-Savoie caught fire after being struck by lightning. In Correze, the severe winds forced organizers to cancel a concert at the Lovely Brive Festival. According to the Keraunos observatory, the Limousin region alone was hit by approximately 3,000 lightning strikes over a 24-hour period.
Meteo-France has since lifted all remaining orange thunderstorm warnings as the weather system moved away. The destructive storms follow weeks of extreme heat and dry conditions across France, which have previously triggered major wildfires and caused repeated disruptions to the nation's power and transport infrastructure.
