Abstract
The Nord-Pas-de-Calais is located in the north of France (Appendix 2) and is bound by three borders, the Sea, a border with Belgium and a border with the French area Picardy (Appendix 3).
The surface of the territory is 12 414 km2 i.e. 2.3% of the French territory. Its littoral edge is important: 140 km. The area is located between the 50ème and the 51st parallel, i.e. the same latitude as Cracow, Prague, the north of China, Vancouver.
The regional climate does not present great originality. The Nord-Pas-De-Calais is subject to the same influences as the major part of France, but its more septentrional position makes time more unstable, explaining a weaker sunning, less than 1600 hours per year. The dangers related to the weather are not very frequent: glazes and snow seldom persist (18 days of snow on average) while nebulosity gene visibility 81 days per annum in Lille (against 28 in Calais). It is the wind, the last large influence on the regional climate, which is very often given the responsibility to sweep the sky, and this in all the directions.
