A powerful tornado tore through the village of Pomas in southwestern France on Monday afternoon, injuring 41 people, damaging around 300 homes, and triggering widespread transport disruption across the country's south. The storm struck at approximately 5:20 p.m. local time, battering the community of roughly 1,000 residents in the Aude department — an inland region bordering the Pyrenees mountains and the Mediterranean coast. Fifteen of the injured required hospitalisation, while emergency shelters were opened for displaced residents at a local community hall in Pomas and in the nearby town of Limoux.

The destruction was severe and swift. Winds reached up to 117 kilometres per hour in surrounding areas, ripping roofs from houses and, in some cases, causing walls to collapse entirely. Among those hospitalised was a pregnant woman whose home partially collapsed around her; she was shielded from the worst of the debris by her sofa, according to local gendarmerie. Her husband, speaking to journalists at the scene, said she had been taken to hospital, though the condition of her unborn child remained unknown. More than 120 firefighters and rescue specialists were deployed to Pomas, with reinforcements called in from neighbouring departments. Authorities confirmed they were not searching for any missing persons.

The broader storm system placed large parts of southwestern France on orange alert — the second-highest level of weather warning — with the Aude department remaining under alert until early evening. Around 2,800 households across ten villages were left without electricity. Several roads were blocked by fallen trees, and the storm disrupted transport networks far beyond the immediate area: trains were delayed, and airports in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, and Paris reported cancellations and delays. In the Aude, organisers were forced to cancel the third stage of the Vuelta a España cycling race, a prestigious international event that had been scheduled in the region, after a hailstorm forced riders to take shelter.

France experiences several dozen tornadoes on average each year, though they rarely cause damage on this scale. The national weather service, Météo-France, has noted that the impact of climate change on the frequency and intensity of such events remains scientifically uncertain. What is clear is that Monday's storm left one small community facing a lengthy recovery, with building safety assessments under way into the night to prevent further collapses.