The UK Health and Security Agency has issued fresh amber warnings for cold weather amid the ongoing UK snow storm. Weather health alerts by region include theNorth East (Cumbria and Northumberland) from 09/01/2025 at 12PM to 14/01/2025 at 9AM.
This is as well as North West (Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire), London, Yorkshire, West Midlands (Warwickshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire), East Midlands (Derbyshire, Northants, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire), East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk), South East (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex) and South West (Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, and Somerset).
“Forecast weather is likely to cause significant impacts across health and social care services, including a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions. We may also see impacts on younger age groups,” the UKHSA said.
It could trigger “a likely increase in demand for health services” and “temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks”, the health and security body has said.
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It could bring “challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people” and cause “staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays)” and “other sectors starting to observe impacts (such as transport and energy)”.
The Weather health alerting system is provided by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in partnership with the Met Office. It’s intended to provide early warning to the health and social care sector, the responder community, the voluntary and community sector and government departments when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and wellbeing of the population.
The Weather health alerting system is made up of the Heat-Health Alerts (HHA) and Cold-Health Alerts (CHA). The Weather health alerting system underpins the Adverse Weather and Health Plan. The Cold-health alerting systems core alerting seasons runs from 1 November to 31 March each year.
However should an episode of cold occur outside of this core period, an extraordinary alert will be issued. Make sure you are registered to receive the alerts directly by email by completing the registration form.