We dropped in early this morning to Vouvray's Espace du Vin to check whether there had been any hail damage in the vines over the last 24 hours or so during the Météo France Orange Storm Alert. Fortunately there had not been any reported damage, which confirmed the impression I had from checking on Twitter and Facebook.
Vouvray, however, was not far off the hail corridor as Ballan Miré was hit yesterday evening around 8pm:
'Pendant trois minutes, hier soir, la commune de
Ballan-Miré a été touchée de plein fouet par un violent orage de
grêlons, gros comme des balles de golf.
Il est un peu plus de 20 h, hier soir. Le ciel se fait menaçant au-dessus de la commune de Ballan-Miré. Soudain, le déluge.'
Read the rest: La Nouvelle République 10.6.14
Also very early morning yesterday Chambon in the Creuse Valley just north of La Roche-Posay was also hit by hail:
'Le violent orage qui a éclaté à 5 h, hier, n’aurait causé de dommages
qu’à Chambon (sud Lochois). La grêle a endommagé une centaine de
toitures.'
Parts of Vouvray were severely hit by on June 17th 2013, so it is good news that so far they have escaped. The weather today is still unsettled with more rain and lightning but much lower in intensity than yesterday. Hopefully this afternoon will be calm, so allowing the flowering to be quick and successful. On a quick check flowering has yet to start in Vouvray.
Further south in Bordeaux and Cognac around 1000 hectares of vines have been affected. See report from Chris Kissack here on Château Preuillac in the northen Médoc. In Germany at least six people were killed in violent storms.
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