Eight French départements were placed on orange alert, the second highest level, by the national weather agency Météo France on Tuesday morning.

The Météo France warning followed 48 hours of heavy rainfall in the north east of the country.

Six of the départements were under flood risk: Ardennes, Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Bas-Rhin (all in the north east of France).

The remaining two départements, Corse-du-Sud et Haute-Corse were on alert for violent winds as “storm Hervé” was due to lashthe island

Heavy gusts were already sweeping over Corsica early on Tuesday morning.

Méteo France said the storm would decrease in strength throughout the afternoon on the island's northeastern side, and in the evening in the south.

The flood and wind alerts came after a day of exceptional warm weather in France as cities all over the south broke February heat records on Monday.

In a dozen or so cities temperatures climbed over the 25C degree mark.