A tornado hit the Aude department in southern France in the late afternoon of Monday 24 August, devastating above all the small municipality of Pomas, with around a thousand inhabitants south of Carcassonne. The updated toll speaks of 41 injured people, 15 of whom were transported to hospital, and over 300 homes damaged. Among the people rescued there is also a pregnant woman, who was injured when a part of her house collapsed: according to her husband’s account, she was protected by the sofa while a wall fell.
The vortex passed through the area around 5.20pm on August 24, leaving behind roofs uncovered, trees uprooted, cars damaged and debris along the roads. The images shot by the inhabitants show a column of dark air advancing between houses and vegetation.
In Pomas the passage was particularly violent: some homes completely lost their coverage and checks on the stability of the buildings began on Monday evening. Around 120 firefighters and rescuers were mobilized on site, while the gendarmerie patrolled the most affected areas.
The tornado developed during a large phase of bad weather that affected the south and south-west of France. Météo-France had placed an orange watch for thunderstorms in 18 departments, with the risk of hail, heavy rain and violent gusts. In nearby Arquettes-en-Val a gust of 117 kilometers per hour was recorded. Thunderstorms and hailstorms caused train delays, road closures and inconveniences at the airports of Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse, with repercussions also reported in the Paris area.
Bad weather also stopped it Vuelta de España. The third stage, from Gruissan to Font-Romeu, in the French Pyrenees, was interrupted about 15 kilometers from the finish after a violent hailstorm. The runners sought shelter and the organizers decided to cancel the final part of the stage, as the road to the finish line was quickly covered in hailstones.
🚨Carrera held in the Vuelta for a granizada.
🌧️In an unprecedented image, cyclists reach the stage and seek refuge.
🔴Continue the end of the stage in La 2 and in DIRECTO en: https://t.co/uCqExDBqqO#VueltaRTVE23a #LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/OjmYOMGV9S
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) August 24, 2026
The new episode also comes at the end of a summer marked in France by heat waves and fires of exceptional dimensions. In Gironde, the large fire that began on 22 July covered around 42 thousand hectares, making it one of the largest recorded in the country since the Landes fire of 1949.
When it’s not just a storm: if the sky turns this color you have a few minutes to take refuge