| Abstract: | Within the framework of a doctoral thesis in geography, we endeavored to draw up the first map showing hail risk in France. The creation of this map is mainly based on the data of hail measuring networks. This map is corroborated, moreover, by the analysis of hail damage maps. Insurance data used to measure relative hail damage are the base premium rate levels expressed as a percentage of assets insured on a single crop, in this case grapes. These levels reflect well, over the long term, the regional hierarchy of damage, without it being necessary to correlate them directly in terms of frequency and intensity of hail. The regions that suffer the most hail stretch from the southwest to the east-central area of France, passing through the Massif Central. One must also note the southern Alps as a strongly hail-prone region. From the diagonal line of high hail risk emerge two gradients of decreasing intensity and frequency of hail. Toward the west, the risk of hail diminishes strongly, attaining a minimum level in Brittany and on the English Channel coast. Toward the southeast, hail diminishes near the Mediterranean coast. The climatological explanations of this map are so far only hypotheses. Hail is not the exclusive feature of a single climate; it seems on the contrary to be the hallmark of regions of climatic contact. The line of maximal hail risk is situated at the frontier between the oceanic and Mediterranean influences. This conflict is readily measurable in the southwest part of France where the pyrenees channel the Mediterranean influences at low levels. The map of hail risk is also the reflection of the probability of southwestern flow at high altitudes. In the east-central area of France (around Lyon), the local topography can amplify hail energy especially on leeward slopes. |
