How Do Cold Weather Health Alerts Work?

The upwind alert work is tally by nan UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and nan Met Office.

The alerts pass nan nationalist erstwhile precocious aliases debased temperatures airs a imaginable consequence to health.

Cold wellness alerts are issued betwixt 1 November and 30 March, and power wellness alerts are published betwixt 1 June and 30 September.

As good arsenic informing nan public, nan strategy sends guidance straight to NHS England, nan authorities and healthcare professionals during periods of adverse weather.

Alerts are categorised according to severity and include:

• headline upwind conditions expected successful nan coming days
• details of really upwind conditions will impact each region
• links to further information, proposal and guidance

The strategy was designed to thief trim unwellness and deaths during periods of utmost basking and acold weather.

• See existent power wellness alerts
• Check nan UK upwind warnings successful place

The level of alert is based connected Met Office forecasts and data.

There are 4 levels ranging from greenish (least severe) to reddish (most severe):

Green

Green is nan normal level, erstwhile proposal is fixed connected really group should hole to respond if temperatures emergence aliases fall.

Yellow

Yellow alerts are issued during periods of basking aliases acold upwind that are only apt to impact those who are peculiarly vulnerable, for illustration nan elderly, aliases those pinch existing wellness conditions.

Amber

Amber alerts are issued successful situations that could perchance put nan full organization astatine risk. The NHS whitethorn spot accrued request connected GPs and ambulances, for example.

Travel disruption is besides likely.

Red

A reddish alert is nan astir severe.

It is issued successful situations erstwhile basking aliases acold upwind would beryllium a important consequence to life, moreover for nan patient population, and could lead to failures of captious nationalist infrastructure, specified arsenic powerfulness outages aliases roads and obstruction lines being closed.

Flu and definite different diseases that origin colds and sore throats dispersed much easy successful nan wintertime months. Pneumonia, erstwhile location is inflammation successful nan lungs because of an infection, is much communal aft acold weather.

Cases of norovirus - nan wintertime vomiting bug - thin to emergence too.

Prof Damian Bailey, from nan University of South Wales, made a programme for BBC Radio 4's Inside Health about nan effects of acold connected nan body.

Presenter James Gallagher spent 30 minutes successful a room wherever nan aerial somesthesia dropped from 21C to 10C.

During nan experiment, nan humor travel to his encephalon fell, his humor unit and bosom complaint increased, nan somesthesia of his extremities - arms, legs and caput - dropped, and he took importantly longer to complete a bid of puzzles.