NHS England have just issued a level 2 Health Heat alert as #HeatwaveUK gets going. 31C is likely 32C possible. Love it or loathe it , take care in the heat
NHS England in conjunction with the UK Met Office have now upped their Heat health alert level to 2 from 1 for some part of England. Other NHS areas have not bought into this service, so the grey areas do not reflect less heat expected. Temperatures to start the week reached 30C and are forecast to stay well into the twenties C again up to 30c even 31c.
There is a 80 % probability of heatwave conditions between 0900 on Tuesday and 1800 on Thursday in parts of England.
Yellow — Alert and readiness
Triggered as soon as the risk is 60% or above for threshold temperatures being reached in one or more regions on at least two consecutive days and the intervening night. This is an important stage for social and healthcare services who will be working to ensure readiness and swift action to reduce harm from a potential heatwave.
Green — Summer preparedness and long-term planning
This is the minimum state of vigilance during the summer. During this time social and healthcare services will ensure that all awareness and background preparedness work is ongoing.
Thresholds - The Met Office raises an alert if there is a high chance that an average temperature of 30C by day and 15C overnight will occur over the next 2 to 3 days. These temperatures can have a significant effect on people's health if they last for at least 2 days and the night in between.
Hampton and Teddington saw 30.1C on Monday 25th, Balmoral 26.7C, the Queen isn't there yet. Monmouthshire reach 28.7C and Co Tyrone 26.7C
What do the Ensemble vs Climate maps display?
"The maps all show an average across a period of 3 days, against average values for the time of year.
The temperature maps therefore display the difference in Celsius from normal - eg a value of 1c means that the temperature is expected to be 1c above normal during that three day period, whereas a value of -1c shows that the temperature is forecast to be 1c below normal during that period."
So also much warmer than usual for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland over the next few days.
Advice - Stay out of the sun in the middle part of the day. Keep your home, workplace, transport as cool as possible Drink cold drinks regularly, such as water and diluted fruit juice. Avoid excess alcohol, caffeine (tea, coffee and cola) or drinks high in sugar.
Heatwaves can be dangerous, especially for the very young or very old or those with chronic disease.
The main problems with heatwave conditions are dehydration, overheating which can be dangerous for people with heart or respiratory problems such as asthma and Heat exhaustion or Heatstroke. There is also the risk of sunburn.
Heat Alert MO- "This warning is likely to be extended from Thursday onward, with the chance of more areas being included, as the dry and settled conditions are expected to persist into the weekend. However their remains some uncertainty with the extent and location of the warmest temperatures beyond Thursday. Alerts are issued once a day by 0900 if required and are not subject to amendment in between standard issue times".
It's not just people who are affected by the heat, animals are too.
I want a tan or why bother with sunscreen when it's cloudy? All about UV and sunscreen
The Heat will stay into the start of July, cooler for coasts. Very high pollen too.
