AMBER and YELLOW heat health alert updated for the South West
Useful links to guidance:
Adverse Weather and Health Plan for England – Adverse Weather Health Plan (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Guidance for health & social care professionals supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather - Supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather: healthcare professionals - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Guidance for social care managers, staff and carers supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather - Supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather: social care managers, staff, and carers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Guidance for teachers and professionals looking after children and those in early year settings during heatwaves - Looking after children and those in early years settings during heatwaves: for teachers and professionals - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Guidance for those supporting people who are homeless and sleeping rough before and during hot weather - Supporting vulnerable people before and during hot weather: people homeless and sleeping rough - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Beat the Heat Guidance - Beat the heat: staying safe in hot weather - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Beat the Heat Poster - Beat the heat (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Preparing for local climate change - Preparing for local climate change | BETA - South Gloucestershire Council (southglos.gov.uk)
Climate and Nature Emergency Community Training - Community Climate and Nature Emergency - Take Action - Overview | Rise 360 (articulate.com)
The yellow heat health alert is in effect from 12PM on 04/07/2026 until 8PM on 11/07/2026 across the South West. The yellow alert has a matrix score of 7. This means:
Minor impacts are likely across health and social care services, including:
increased use of healthcare services by vulnerable people
greater risk to life of vulnerable people
increased potential for indoor environments to become very warm
water-related incidents may increase, including risks from cold-water shock and drowning
You can see all the weather health alerts currently in place across England on the UKHSA data dashboard.
How to take action if you have a duty to respond
Please review the Weather Health Alert System user guidance to explain how you can use the information contained within the alerts to respond to the forecast weather.
We provide guidance on how to take action for a range of professional groups with a duty to respond, with action cards available for commissioners, health and social care providers, voluntary and community sector, and national government. Summary action cards are also available below:
For an overview of the weather alerts in place across England, please check the UKHSA data dashboard.
The Met Office may issue National Severe Weather Warnings (for example, extreme heat) with short notice, so you can take appropriate action. Check the Met Office Website to see the National Severe Weather Warnings currently in place.
You can also find information of the latest weather forecast on the Met Office website.
How to protect yourself if you are vulnerable
While exposure to hot weather can affect anyone, some people are particularly at risk. We have published guidance on staying safe during hot weather.
Planning for adverse weather
All organisations should read the Adverse Weather and Health Plan. This is important if you provide health and social care. The plan explains what you should do before and while a heat health alert is in place.
To support local planning, please check the guidance on local resilience forums.
About heat health alerts
Chief executives of the following organisations in England receive heat health alerts:
health trust providers of NHS commissioned care
local authorities
social care organisations
The Heat-Health Alert Service in England runs from 1 June to 30 September each year, in partnership with the Met Office. This is the period when high temperatures are likely to occur.
If we observe high temperatures outside of this period, we will issue an extraordinary heat health alert. If this happens, stakeholders should take the usual public health actions.
You can share this email with your organisation or sign up to receive alerts using our registration form. We have a separate form if you would like to update your registration details.
Please let us know if you have a question or have a problem with your subscription. You can also unsubscribe from this service.
UKHSA and the Met Office use the Risk Matrix to assign a risk score for each alert. Users can refer the alert’s risk score to the matrix to understand the severity of the alert and likelihood of its impact.
An AMBER Heat-Health Alert has been issued for the South West from 9AM on 08/07/2026 until 9PM on 12/07/2026. (Yellow Heat Health Alert for the South West still in place and valid until 09:00am Wednesday 8th July).
Below are links to the Heat-Health Alert (HHA) action cards and guidance documents produced by UKHSA summarising suggested actions to be taken by different professional bodies and organisations in the event of extreme heat. Please ensure that your service delivery partners are aware of these action cards.
Heat-Health Alert summary action card for the voluntary and community sector
Heat-Health Alert summary action card for services delivering care to people in their homes
Heat-Health Alert summary action card for hospitals and healthcare in the community
Guidance for supporting vulnerable people – children, homeless, social care and healthcare settings
The forecast is currently as follows:
“Temperatures reaching into the low 30s for various locations each day, particularly inland areas and the Bristol Channel coast later in the week. The peak of the heat currently looks to be on Friday and Saturday where there is a low risk of temperatures reaching into the mid-thirties and overnight temperatures possibly staying in the high teens or low twenties for a couple of nights. This is a prolonged period of higher temperatures, however the peak temperatures and humidity are lower than the previous heatwave at the end of June - no Extreme Heat Warnings or other severe weather warnings have been issued by the MET Office at this stage.”
Please see the attached email, share with your service areas, consider the impacts on your Business Continuity and implement any relevant actions within your own service plans and as per your allocated roles in the NSC Severe Weather (heat) Response Plan.
The EMU will continue to monitor all alerts and warnings received and will cascade updates and changes to the forecast.
At this stage we will not be activating the NSC Severe Weather Co-ordination Group, however, please raise any Business Continuity issues to the EMU (emu@n-somerset.gov.uk) to allow us to consider activating the Severe Weather Co-ordination Group if required.