A tornado tore through the village of Pomas in southwestern France on Monday afternoon, injuring 41 people and damaging around 300 homes.
The tornado struck the village in the Aude department late in the afternoon of August 24, 2026, according to DR. Local authorities told the news agency AFP that 41 people were hurt and roughly 300 homes were damaged, with roofs torn off houses.
Fifteen of the injured were taken to hospital. Among them is a pregnant woman who, according to her husband, was hurt when the couple’s house collapsed on her. More than 120 emergency workers were sent to the area, DR reports.
Pomas has around 1,000 residents. Euronews reports that the Aude prefecture confirmed the tornado hit at about 17:20 local time, crossing Pomas and nearby communes between Carcassonne and Limoux. The prefecture also stated that operations were under way to secure damaged buildings.
Wind gusts of 117 km/h and power cuts
In the nearby village of Arquettes-en-Val, wind gusts reached 117 kilometers per hour, the French weather service Météo-France said, as cited by AFP. According to La Chaîne Météo, Météo-France recorded gusts above 100 kilometers per hour elsewhere in the department, and an orange-level severe weather warning was in place until it was lifted that evening.
Around 2,800 homes across about ten villages lost electricity. France24 reports the same figures for injuries, damaged homes and power cuts. Local outlet La Dépêche describes Pomas as a landscape of desolation and says preliminary assessments point to an EF2 intensity.
The storm system also caused widespread transport problems in southern France. Trains were delayed, roads had to be closed, and flights were delayed or canceled at airports including Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse. Air traffic was affected as far north as Paris, French transport minister Philippe Tabarot said.
Earlier in the day, figures from the prefecture and local emergency services put the toll at 26 injured and around 100 homes damaged. Those numbers were later revised upward to 41 injured and 300 homes affected. Reports from Europa Press also mention two people missing in the rubble, which has not been confirmed in the latest prefecture tallies.
Conditions behind the tornado
Keraunos, the French observatory of severe storms, states that the tornado formed inside a powerful supercell thunderstorm over Aude. The observatory points to strong atmospheric instability and intense wind shear, conditions it had flagged that morning as raising the risk of tornadoes between Aude and Hérault.
Danish readers following thunderstorms and hail warnings may recognize the same orange-level alert system used by national weather services.
