Quote from the head of the French met office -
"If you look at the three or four days surrounding the accident, there was more intense development before and after than on the night of the flight itself," he says, adding that at 02:15UTC the growth phase of the local cumulonimbus had already passed and the clouds were in the "lower end" of their cycle.
"We cannot conclude that this situation was exceptional," he says. "There was no unusual intensity or strength."
Bye, Barry