Cold Weather Alert

Current alert level: Level 3 - Cold Weather Action Issued at: 08:41 on Mon 21 Jan 2019

There is a 90% probability of severe cold weather, icy conditions and mostly hill snow between 0900 on Monday 21 Jan and 0900 on Friday 25 Jan in parts of England. This weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services. Please refer to the national Cold Weather Plan and your Trust's emergency plan for appropriate preventive action.

This alert extends the duration of the active alert, issued on Friday 18 January and supersedes it. All regional alert levels remain unchanged, with the exception of Southeast England which is now upgraded from Level 1 (No Alert) to Level 2 (Yellow). The main hazards in this alert period are likely to be widespread ice on Monday night into Tuesday morning, as well as the ongoing low temperatures. While some snow is expected - including sporadic slight falls to low levels - amounts are only likely to be appreciable on high ground, mainly in the northwest. There is some uncertainty in the timing of relieving less cold conditions from the west late this working week. The present most likely scenario is for a less cold blip of one or two days' duration from Friday. This should come before a resumption of widespread cold to end the coming weekend and probably beyond.

An update will be issued when the alert level changes in any region. Alerts are issued once a day by 0900 if required and are not subject to amendment in between standard issue times. Note that the details of the forecast weather are valid at the time of issue but may change over the period that an alert remains in force. These details will not be updated here unless the alert level also changes, the latest forecast details can be obtained at the following link: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/#?tab=map