The Adverse Weather and Health Plan: How Services Respond

When a heatwave, a cold snap, a flood or a drought threatens people's health in England, the response you see from the NHS, your council and care services is not improvised. It follows a single framework called the Adverse Weather and Health Plan (AWHP), created by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in association with the Met Office and other partners¹. The plan was first published in April 2023 and launched on 11 May 2023, and the current edition is the Adverse Weather and Health Plan 2026 to 2027¹. It brings together and builds on the previous Heatwave Plan for England and the Cold Weather Plan for England into one annual document³.

For your household, the plan matters in three practical ways. It drives the Weather-Health Alerts you may see in the news or receive by email, which give early warning when adverse temperatures are likely to affect people's health⁴. It shapes what your local NHS services, council and care providers do when those alerts are issued. And it sets out guidance that you can read yourself, including a cold weather guide that is part of the plan's support materials⁵. This page explains how all of that works, what you can expect from each service, and where the plan's limits are, including the fact that it applies to England only.

What the plan is for

The Adverse Weather and Health Plan exists to raise awareness of the harm weather can do to health, and to provide guidance on how to prepare for and respond to it⁸. Its stated aim is to protect individuals and communities from the health effects of adverse weather and to build community resilience⁶. It was developed by scientists and public health experts in UKHSA's Centre for Climate and Health Security, and it forms part of a commitment under the climate change National Adaptation Programme³.

Before 2023, England had two separate plans: the Heatwave Plan for England and the Cold Weather Plan for England. The AWHP brings these together and improves the existing guidance on weather and health, outlining where health and social care, other organisations and local communities can work together during adverse weather³. Cornwall Council's public health team describes the plan as outlining where health and social care and other organisations and local communities can work together to deliver the response². That word "together" is the heart of it: no single service can protect health in a heatwave or a freeze, so the plan sets out how the pieces fit.

The programme of work contains four components⁶:

The plan is an annual document, so it is refreshed each year rather than sitting unchanged³. The 2025/26 update included refreshed sections on mortality associated with hot and cold weather, updated material on flooding and emerging hazards including drought and thunderstorm asthma, an updated behavioural factors section, and updated information on health inequalities arising from the AWHP Equity Review¹⁰. Older editions are withdrawn as they are replaced: the 2023 to 2024 plan was removed as superseded by the 2024 to 2025 report¹.

Who the plan is written for, and what it means for your household

The plan is written first for organisations, not directly for households. It recommends a series of steps to reduce health risks for the NHS, local authorities, social care and other public agencies, and for professionals working with people at risk. But it also addresses individuals, local communities and voluntary groups⁹. Local organisations and partnerships are encouraged to use the plan to develop local health and resilience plans setting out how they will protect their local populations from the health impacts of adverse weather events⁶.

What does that mean for you? It means that when a Weather-Health Alert is issued, the services you deal with are already acting to a script. Your GP practice, community nurses, care home, school and council are drawing on the same guidance, aimed at the people most at risk. If you or someone you look after is vulnerable to heat or cold, that is who the system is built around, and it is worth making sure your household has its own plan to match.

A household plan is the mirror image of the official one, and councils across the UK encourage it. The Scottish Government's Ready Scotland campaign publishes a home emergency plan and states plainly that an emergency plan will help you and your household stay safe in an emergency¹¹. Northern Ireland's nidirect service offers a household severe weather plan with advice on preparing for severe weather¹². In England, councils such as West Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire publish household emergency plan templates: a Household Emergency Plan includes all the information you could need during an emergency and should be stored in your grab bag¹³.

What to put in a household plan, drawing on the official templates:

• Emergency contact details for your family or the people you live with, plus details of your insurance and utility providers¹⁵
• What to do for the severe weather most likely where you live: snow, ice, flooding, heatwave or high winds¹⁴
• Who checks on anyone in the household who is older, disabled or medically dependent
• If you care for someone, a carer's emergency plan: Suffolk and Norfolk councils both publish these, setting out in advance what needs to happen to the person you care for if you cannot continue providing care, and identifying someone to be contacted¹⁶

If you want to go further, Argyll and Bute Council guides communities through making a Community Emergency Plan, covering deciding who the plan is for, getting advice, thinking about the risks to your community and your local skills, knowledge and resources, involving people who can help, and writing and testing the plan¹⁸. Our community resilience guide covers this in more depth.

Weather-Health Alerts: the warnings the plan is built on

The Weather-Health Alerting (WHA) system is the trigger mechanism for the whole plan. It provides an early warning when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and wellbeing of the population⁴. The system is operated by UKHSA together with the Met Office, and its Heat-Health Alerts and Cold-Health Alerts underpin the Adverse Weather and Health Plan¹⁹. The alerts provide key advice when adverse temperatures are likely to affect health and wellbeing, and the ambulance service counts them among the warnings households should act on²⁰.

Two things make these alerts different from the Met Office weather warnings you may be more familiar with. First, they are weighted on adverse effects to public health and healthcare capacity, not just on how extreme the weather itself is⁷. A temperature that would be harmless in August can be dangerous in an unusual June heat, and the alert reflects the health impact, not the number on the thermometer. Second, the Cold-Health Alert Service considers two aspects: adverse cold weather and health-sector resilience⁷. If the health system itself is under strain, that changes the alert.

The system operates through the whole year with a seasonal focus, and it currently operates in England only⁷. Outside the core alerting periods, an out-of-season alert may still be issued if impacts from adverse weather on health, heat or cold, are expected⁴. So an unusually hot spell in September or a cold snap in April can still trigger an alert.

Within the core alerting period, a Heat-Health Planner is also issued every Monday and Friday, providing heat-health horizon scanning for the days ahead¹⁰. You can see current alerts on the UKHSA dashboard²¹, and local resilience sites such as Essex Prepared explain how the UKHSA heat and cold alerts work alongside other warnings²². If you want to receive them directly, our guide on how to sign up for heat-health alerts walks through it, and our page on heat-health alert levels explains what yellow, amber and red mean for what you should do.

Nine areas of action services work through

The plan seeks to address nine action areas⁶. These are the headings under which the NHS, councils and their partners organise their response, and UKHSA outlines them as important areas for action that healthcare organisations and their partners can consider when developing local cold weather plans²³:

For a household, the areas you will notice most are communication and service delivery. Communication is why you will hear consistent advice, from the NHS, your council and the Met Office, when an alert is issued: the plan's guidance materials are the common source. Service delivery is why your GP, pharmacist or care provider may contact you, or change how they work, during a heatwave or cold snap. UKHSA publishes separate guidance for professionals on supporting vulnerable people before and during cold weather, one version for healthcare professionals and one for teachers and educational professionals, and both are built on the same framework²³.

Cold weather planning has a rhythm you can rely on. Plans for managing adverse cold weather events should be agreed and distributed before 1 November each year²³. So by the time the first frost arrives, the local plans that protect older people, those with health conditions and rough sleepers are already in place.

Heat, cold, flood and drought: the guidance appendices

The plan itself is a strategy document. The practical guidance sits in its appendices, which list the guidance and support materials available on GOV.UK: Appendix 2 covers heat, Appendix 3 covers cold, and Appendix 4 covers flood and drought⁶. These appendices are where a household can read the same advice the professionals use.

For cold, the key public-facing document is "Keeping warm and well: staying safe in cold weather", which is part of UKHSA's Adverse Weather and Health Plan for cold weather advice and aims to protect people's health and reduce harm from adverse cold weather⁵. The Met Office's Stay Well in Winter advice sits alongside it and explains the alert system in everyday terms⁸. For heat, the Met Office's heatwave guidance explains the thresholds that define a heatwave and points to the plan and its alert service⁹. Our pages on what counts as a heatwave, who is most at risk in hot weather and keeping your home cool translate this guidance for households.

Flood and drought are treated as emerging hazards in the plan, and the 2025/26 update strengthened the material on both, along with thunderstorm asthma¹⁰. The health angle matters here: drought is not only about hosepipes. Houses with a private water supply may be more vulnerable to drought because private water supplies often rely on small water sources that can dry up quickly, and their water quality can decline during drought conditions, with contamination possible when water levels are low, which could make someone who drinks that water unwell²⁵.

If your private water supply is affected by drought, contact your local authority²⁵. The Drinking Water Inspectorate explains that insufficiency can arise from challenging weather conditions such as drought or severe cold weather, sources drying up or freezing, undetected leaks, pipe bursts, pump failure, inadequate supply arrangements and disconnection of pipework²⁶. Relevant persons, which usually means the owners and users of the supply, should ensure clear and achievable documented contingency procedures are in place, including arrangements for alternative supplies of water²⁶. Cornwall Council, an area with many private supplies, notes that during prolonged dry weather these supplies can become unreliable and may also experience changes in water quality, and advises farmers to monitor water levels and quality closely, reduce non-essential use, and have plans for alternative water supplies for livestock and essential farm operations before supplies become critical²⁷. Our page on what to do if your private water supply dries up covers the practical steps.

What your local authority does when severe weather hits

Your council is the layer of the system closest to your street, and its duties stretch well beyond health. During severe flooding, local authorities work with the emergency services and co-ordinate shelter for people evacuated from their homes²⁹. If you are ever told to evacuate, that shelter is being arranged through your council, and you should follow the emergency services' instructions at the time.

Councils also take a lead role in local resilience forums (LRFs), the partnerships that bring together councils, emergency services, the NHS and utilities, and it is their duty to prepare for severe drought impacts within their emergency plans³⁰. In Scotland, local authorities are responsible for producing Local Flood Risk Management Plans in partnership with SEPA, Scottish Water and other responsible authorities²⁹. Councils also carry specific legal duties in rarer scenarios: GB law places a legal duty on the relevant local authority to produce plans to deal with off-site emergencies at nuclear sites, and should a radiation emergency be declared, the local authority will activate its off-site emergency plan to protect the public within a pre-determined area known as the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone³¹.

On water, the local authority is the regulator for private water supplies, with functions prescribed in sections 77 to 85 of the Water Industry Act 1991²⁸. The Regulations give councils enforcement powers when a supply presents a potential danger to human health, but they do not give powers to require a sufficient supply²⁸. Where circumstances do pose a danger to life or human health, the local authority has power to require, if practicable at reasonable cost, the local water company to supply water by means other than in pipes for a specified period, with costs recoverable from the relevant persons²⁸. Under section 79 of the Act, the local authority must require the local water company to provide a wholesome water supply to the premises where the supply causes a danger to life or health and it is practicable at reasonable cost by means other than pipes²⁸.

If you live in a building with a shared evacuation arrangement, such as a block of flats, note that the building's evacuation plan is the responsibility of the Responsible Person under fire safety law, as North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service explains for residential personal emergency evacuation plans³². Ask your landlord or managing agent what the plan is for your building before you need it.

What to expect from your council, and when:

The plan applies to England only

One limit matters if you live outside England: the Adverse Weather and Health Plan applies to England⁶, and the Weather-Health Alerting system currently operates in England only⁷. There is no UK-wide equivalent under this name, so households in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should look to their own arrangements.

That does not mean nothing happens elsewhere. NHS inform, Scotland's health information service, publishes advice on how to stay safe during a drought, including the guidance on private water supplies quoted above²⁵. Ready Scotland publishes the home emergency plan¹¹. nidirect in Northern Ireland covers severe weather, storms, flooding and drought, and offers a household severe weather plan¹². The Met Office's seasonal health advice, including Stay Well in Winter, is available UK-wide even though the alert system behind it is England-only⁸. Our guides to staying informed in an emergency and extra help for those who need it point to the equivalents in each nation.

For everyone, wherever you live, the practical starting point is the same: know the risks where you live, keep a household emergency kit ready, and make a simple plan with the people you live with. The official system described on this page is the safety net; your own preparations are what carry you through the first hours and days of any heatwave, flood or freeze while that system swings into action.