Five UK regions set for amber alert warning as first heatwave of year will hit

Five regions across England and Wales have been upgraded to amber heat health alerts with temperatures set to soar this weekend.

An amber alert indicates that weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service, and that some health impacts may be seen across the wider population, not just the most vulnerable.

The Met Office and UK Health Security Agency have now upgraded several areas from the lesser yellow warning.

READ MORE: Weather forecasters pinpoint when UK will hit 30C — but 'unusually large hail' coming

On Saturday (June 10) much of southern and central England will bake in a 30C Iberian blast, which would make it the hottest day of 2023 so far.

The updated alert says: "Significant impacts are probable across the health and social care sector due to the high temperatures, including: observed increase in mortality across the population likely, particularly in the 65+ age group or those with health conditions.

"The impact on ability of services to be delivered due to heat effects on workforce are possible and many indoor environments likely to be overheating.

"There is a risk to vulnerable people living independently in the community as well as in care settings; medicines management issues; staffing issues due to external factors (e.g. transport); cross system demand for temporary AC capacity exceeded possible and other sectors starting to observe impacts (e.g. travel delays)."

The amber alert, also called an enhanced hot weather response, has been updated for the East Midlands, West Midlands, east of England, south east and south west.

It comes into effect on Friday (June 9) at 9am and runs until Monday (June 12) at 9am.

The areas remaining in the yellow alert system, which is a generic hot weather response, are the north east, north west, Yorkshire and The Humber and London.

The alert added: "Temperatures will increase widely in the coming days with winds coming from a more southerly direction.

“This brings an increased chance of heat-health alert criteria being met across all regions.

"With increasingly humid air and light winds through the weekend, overnight temperatures will be uncomfortable for many, with minimum temperatures widely being in the mid to high teens."

While these alerts are made public, they are also sent to the chief executive of every health trust provider within the NHS commissioned care. Local and social care authorities are also sent copies.

The amber and yellow alerts are the first of their kind to be issued this year.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Dan Harris spoke about the risk of thunderstorms too, and added: “Although a plume of warm air will bring temperatures up to around 30C in some parts of England, it brings with it the risk of some impactful thunderstorms.

"The general focus area for Saturday has become better defined over the past 24 hours, which has resulted in sufficient confidence to issue a 'Very Low Likelihood' Yellow Thunderstorm Warning.

“While not everyone in the warning area will see the heaviest showers, or even showers at all, some are likely to be torrential and thundery, with 30-40mm falling in an hour.

"Some spots affected by multiple showers could see in excess of 60mm within the warning period.”

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