After days of widespread snow, now France faces 'meteorological bomb'

Already blanketed with snow, France is facing more disruption with the arrival of the first named storm of the winter.

Storm Goretti is set to hit France on Thursday, with the northern and western coasts along the English Channel and Atlantic Ocean likely to be pummelled by wind speeds between 100 and 120 km/h.

Four regions have been put on amber alert for high winds on Thursday.

The storm comes after days of heavy snowfall across the country, from the tip of Brittany down to the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

The inclement weather has seen temperatures in the Alps drop to -18 degrees Celsius at night, with temperatures below freezing even in the major cities.

Schools have been closed in the hardest-hit parts of the country, mostly in the north-western region of Brittany and the neighboring region of Normandy.

Freight trucks were banned from the roads in those two areas of the country on Wednesday to try to avoid traffic accidents.

Five people have been killed so far this week in France in separate crashes due to snow and ice on the roads. Several trunk highways were closed on Wednesday across the country. 

The government said it was doing all it could to avoid people having to stay in their vehicles overnight due to blocked roads.

"I don't want to see the scenes we had in 2024 and 2018 when people were forced to sleep in their cars", said Philippe Tabarot, the transport minister.

He called on people in the Paris capital region to try to avoid all road journeys on Wednesday and work from home where possible.

Commuters who cannot telework faced 800 kilometers of tailbacks in blizzards that impacted the Wednesday morning rush hour in the capital.

Workers who usually take the bus had to find alternative modes of transport to get to their places of employment as the Paris public transport operator halted all bus routes on Wednesday due to the new snowfall.

The airline sector was heavily impacted by the snowy and icy conditions, with 40 percent of flights canceled at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport – the country's busiest, and one of Europe's major hubs – and 25 percent canceled at Paris Orly airport.