Level guide
What does Vigilance rouge mean in France?
How Météo-France describes this level, summarised in English, and what it asks you to do. Checked against the official page on 10 October 2026.
Vigilance rouge
Exceptionally intense dangerous weather calls for maximum vigilance.
Follow official safety directions and regularly check developments.
The warning itself names the hazard, the area and the times. Read them on the issuer's page, and follow local authorities.
CAP severity
No fixed mapping. A national colour or rating does not imply a CAP severity. Each warning carries the CAP value its issuer assigned, and this section copies that value per warning instead of inferring it from the colour.
Other France levels with a guide here
Not necessarily the whole scale: only levels checked against the issuer's own page get a guide.
Why scales are not interchangeable
A colour carries no meaning on its own. Each agency sets its levels against its own thresholds, for its own hazards, areas and durations, so the same colour in two countries is not the same level. Reading one country's colour as if it were another's can make a serious warning look mild.
That is why every warning in this section shows the label its own agency used, with any CAP severity beside it, and never merges the two. See the methodology, and the hazard explainers for what the hazards themselves involve.
Source
Source: meteofrance.fr · EXE_vigilance_brochure_2019…, checked 10 October 2026
The source is the authority. If it and this summary disagree, the source is right and this page is out of date.