The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended its ultra rare cold ‘amber’ health alerts for all of England until Tuesday – it comes following the coldest January night in 15 years
Nine ultra rare ‘amber’ health alerts have been issued across England as millions of Brits face another night of bitterly cold temperatures.
According to the Met Office, last night the UK faced the coldest January temperatures in 15 years after they dropped to -18.7C in Altnaharra, in the far north of Scotland. Meanwhile, temperatures in England fell to -11C in Cumbira and -5 in Heathrow.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has extended its rare amber alerts for all of England until Tuesday. The rare cold weather alerts mean a likely rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions.
Although yellow alerts are normally issued during periods of cold weather that could pose a risk to elderly people or those with underlying health conditions, an amber alert is issued when a wider impact is expected.
According to the UKHSA, the weather health alerting system is 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 health alerting system is made up of the Heat-Health Alerts (HHA) and Cold-Health Alerts (CHA).
Although temperatures are expected to recover next week, they will drop below freezing in some eastern areas tonight, according to weather forecasters.
Met Office meteorologist Zoe Hutin said: “So another chilly night to come on Saturday, but then as we go into Sunday and into Monday, then we can start to expect temperatures to recover somewhat. I won’t rule out the risk of seeing something around or just below freezing again on Sunday night into Monday, but it won’t be quite so dramatic as the temperatures that we’re going to experience as we go overnight tonight.”
Next week is due to feel milder but it sadly doesn’t mean temperatures are going to be above average. The forecaster added: “We’re saying it’s getting milder but by no stretch does that mean (temperatures) are going to be above average, it just will feel comparatively much more pleasant than it is at the moment.
“It has been getting progressively colder each night this week, whereas looking at previous years, we’ve had maybe two or three days where things have been particularly cold.”
Cold health alerts
- North East
- North West
- Yorkshire and The Humber
- East Midlands
- West Midlands
- East of England
- London
- South East
- South West
