Météo-France Puts Haute-Corse Under Red Flood Warning After Record Rain at Solenzara
France's national weather service, Météo-France, put Haute-Corse under red vigilance, the top level of its four-step warning scale, for rain and flooding on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, with the warning due to remain in force until 8 p.m. local time, in bulletins carried by Franceinfo. Corse-du-Sud and the mainland department of Gard were placed under orange vigilance for the same hazard, with the flood risk in Gard now limited to the banks of the Vistre river.
At Solenzara, a coastal town in Corse-du-Sud on Corsica's eastern shore, Météo-France's weather station recorded 420.6 millimeters of rain in three hours, breaking the previous French and Corsican record for that span, Météo-France said, according to Franceinfo. The previous record, 344.3 millimeters, was set at Valleraugue, in Gard, on Sept. 19, 2020. Météo-France described the rainstorm as exceptional "at a local level."
In the Bouches-du-Rhône department on the French mainland, a 75-year-old man was swept away by floodwater in Saint-Mitre-les-Remparts and later found dead in the neighboring town of Istres, the préfecture said, according to Franceinfo.
