Heat health alert for South West

The red heat health alert is in effect from 24 June 2026 at 1am to 25 June at 11pm

Risk Description

Severe impacts are expected across health and social care services due to the high temperatures, including:

• increased risk to life across the whole population, with significant impacts on older people
• significantly increased demand on all health and social care services
• the heat affecting the ability of the workforce to deliver services
• hot indoor environments making provision of care challenging and national critical infrastructure failures, such as generators and power outages
• 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 and the Heat-Health Alert action card for health and social care providers, which summarises the suggested actions that providers of health or social care should consider at each Heat-Health Alert level.

How to protect yourself if you are vulnerable

This guidance provides advice for everyone on how to stay safe during hot weather, including how to keep your home cool. 

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.