Paris airports close as France awaits storm

All three of the French capital's airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget, are to suspend traffic this evening from eight o'clock until Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock local time.

Storms with winds of up to 120 km/h are expected in the Paris region overnight as weather is is once again making the headlines here in France.

This country's national meteorological service, Météo-France, is forecasting storms over a huge part of the country from Monday evening.

It has predicted high winds with gusts of up to 140 km/h to hit the west and southwest of the country at around six o'clock local time moving across country throughout the night and into Tuesday.

In total, Météo-France has put 61 (of the 96 in mainland France) départements (or administrative districts) on orange alert (see affected areas here).

"Vigilance has been advised" and a huge swathe of the country is expected to be affected with winds predicted to be as strong 120 -140 km/h in western coastal areas.

Further inland, as the storms move from west to east, they should drop to 100-120 km/h before moving in to neighbouring Belgium on Tuesday.

In its wake of course, the storm (or tempête Quentin as it's being called) is expected to create plenty of damage, fallen trees, localised traffic problems and rail and air transport delays throughout the day on Tuesday.

Along with the wind, there'll also be rain - as if many parts of France haven't had more than their fair share already The risk of flooding or rivers breaking their banks isn't thought to be a major threat in most parts of the country, apart from the southwest where water levels are already very high and some local communities have been warned to expect the worst.

One ray of sunshine (sorry - completely unintentional, but you have to look for the positive in all of this too) is that according to Météo-France, the storm will not be as intense as the one that devastated parts of southwestern France on January 24.

But that'll probably be of little comfort to those just recovering from one weather front, now being warned of another one.

January's storm (tempête Klaus) caused an estimated €1.2 billion worth of damages, brought down power lines to 1.7 million households and killed 11 people.