The departments targeted by the alert, which allows local authorities to call off events and close public facilities if needed, are the Rhone, Drome, Ardeche, and Haute-Loire, Meteo France said. The alert became effective at 1600 local time.

It was the sixth time the French meteorological service triggered the red alert – part of the government’s programme to protect the population during periods of extreme weather – and the first such incidence this year.

Earlier today, Meteo France issued an orange alert for half of the country’s territory, saying temperatures will reach between 35°C and 38°C in most of the affected departments. Peaks of 41°C were expected in the southwest and in the Rhone valley. Temperatures are expected to rise to between 40°C and 42°C tomorrow afternoon in the southern departments of Ardeche, Drome, Vaucluse, and Gard, Meteo France said. Separately, French power company EDF said it extended the outage at its 1.3-gigawatt Golfech 2 nuclear reactor in southwestern France today because river water used to cool the reactor had surpassed maximum temperatures due to the heatwave.

Some technical issues at the reactor also played a role in delaying the restart to Aug 25, an EDF spokesman told Reuters. The reactor has been offline since March 27 and had been scheduled to restart yesterday.

Water temperature levels for cooling purposes at the Bugey plant and another reactor along the Rhone river in the southeast were also seen surpassing the government’s guidance by Aug 24, Refinitiv data showed. EDF had previously announced production warnings at the Bugey plant.