How to Sign Up for Met Office Weather Alerts

You can sign up for free Met Office email alerts in a few minutes on the Met Office website, choosing the regions you want warnings for. You will be asked to enter your email address and choose your subscription options, which include weather warnings alongside news releases and blogs¹. The service is free, and the Met Office recommends it as a way to stay up to date with the latest forecast and weather warnings throughout the year².

If you would rather have warnings on your phone, download the Met Office Weather App and create alerts for your area³. The two work well together: email alerts reach you when you are at a desk, and the app follows you when you are out. Neither replaces the other, and neither replaces checking the forecast itself.

There is a second, separate system for heat and cold. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office jointly monitor weather forecasts and issue Weather-Health Alerts when periods of particularly hot or cold weather are forecast⁴. These are not the same as the yellow, amber and red severe weather warnings, and they answer a different question: not just what the weather will do, but what it means for people's health.

Signing up for free email alerts on the Met Office website

The Met Office runs a National Severe Weather Warning Service, and you can sign up for free email alerts to keep up to date with weather warnings⁶. Surrey County Council's emergency planning team puts it the same way: get severe weather warnings and sign up to Met Office alerts⁷.

The sign-up itself is straightforward. You will be asked to enter your email address and choose your subscription options, which are news releases, blogs and weather warnings¹. When you choose weather warnings, you then pick the regions you want to hear about. The list covers Orkney and Shetland, Highlands and Eilean Siar, Grampian, Strathclyde, Central Tayside and Fife, South West Scotland and Lothian Borders, Northern Ireland, Wales, and every region of England from the North West down to London and the South East¹.

Two limits are worth knowing before you start. First, it is not currently possible to select warnings for just one unitary authority: you receive all warnings within the regions you have subscribed to¹. If you live near a regional boundary, choose both regions. Second, you need an internet connection to open the information in each alert email, because the alert links through to the detail¹.

The service is managed on behalf of the Met Office by GovDelivery¹. Your details will not be shared with third parties or Met Office partners, and you can unsubscribe at any time¹. The Met Office also advises periodically checking your subscription profile to view new items on the subscription list, so it is worth logging in now and then rather than setting it once and forgetting it¹.

Alerts on your phone with the Met Office Weather App

Email is not the only route. The Met Office advises signing up to email alerts or downloading the Weather App to stay updated with the latest forecast details⁸. Carmarthenshire Council's adverse weather guidance says the same: you can sign up for email alerts from the Met Office or download their Weather App to ensure you are always updated¹.

The app is the better fit for warnings that arrive while you are out. The Met Office's WeatherReady advice is to check the weather forecast before you go out, and to keep up to date with the latest forecasts on the Met Office website, app and social media channels⁹. That matters because warnings can change quickly. The Met Office's own wording on a yellow wind warning for Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England was blunt: "Be prepared for weather warnings to change quickly. When a weather warning is issued, the Met Office recommends staying up to date with the weather forecast in your area."¹⁰

The app also lets you create alerts for your area, which is the phone equivalent of choosing a region on the email service³. If you travel for work or have family elsewhere, set alerts for more than one place.

Heat-health and cold-health alerts from UKHSA and the Met Office

These are a different system from severe weather warnings, and they are easy to miss because they are run by a different body. The Heat-health alert service is provided by UKHSA in partnership with the Met Office¹¹. The Weather-Health Alert system is UKHSA's online alerting system, with the Met Office supplying weather forecast input¹². It was previously issued by the Met Office and is now issued by UKHSA¹².

How it works: UKHSA and the Met Office monitor the weather forecasts, and where episodes of hot or cold weather are identified using predefined evidence-based considerations, a joint dynamic risk assessment is carried out and the appropriate alert issued¹³. During summer and winter, the two bodies monitor forecasts and carry out a joint risk assessment before issuing alerts⁴. The alerts underpin the Adverse Weather and Health Plan¹¹.

For households, the practical difference is this: a weather warning tells you what the sky will do, and a health alert tells you that the temperature is likely to affect people's health. When UKHSA issues a heat health alert, it is time for everyone to take extra care in the warm weather¹⁴. In cold weather, the advice is to check the forecasts and warnings, pay particular attention to any National Severe Weather Warnings or Cold Health Alerts covering your area, and act on any advice issued³.

You can sign up for heat-health alerts and updates from the Met Office¹⁵. There is also a free Met Office Cold Health Alerts service to keep you up to date with cold health alerts¹⁶. Schools and similar settings can sign up to receive Weather-Health Alerts from UKHSA and the Met Office¹⁷.

For the alert levels themselves and what each one asks of you, see Cold-Health Alerts: What the UKHSA Alert Levels Mean.

Keeping up to date with warnings all year round

Warnings are not a winter-only matter. The Met Office's advice is to sign up to stay up to date with the latest forecast and weather warnings throughout the year². Its community resilience guidance is to always check your latest local forecast to find out if there are any weather warnings in force for your local area⁸.

Different hazards bring different routes to a warning, and it helps to know which is which:

• Storms and gales: stay informed by looking at the weather forecast and checking the Met Office for weather warnings and details of risk in your area¹⁹.
• Flash flooding: sign up to Met Office weather warnings²⁰.
• Summer heat: sign up for weather warning alerts²¹.
• Flooding from rivers and the sea: sign up to the Environment Agency's flood warnings, a separate service from the Met Office⁵. The London Fire Brigade's winter guide makes the same point: keep an eye on local weather reports and sign up for flood alerts²².

That last distinction catches people out. A Met Office warning tells you severe weather is possible; a flood warning tells you water is expected in your area. For the flood side, see Flooding: A Household Guide.

The Met Office also publishes WeatherReady, regularly updated seasonal advice²³. Its purpose is practical: WeatherReady advice provides information from the Met Office's partners with simple actions anyone can take to minimise the impacts of severe weather²⁴. It is a good companion to the alerts, because it tells you what to do once one arrives.

Alerts for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England

The email service covers the whole of the UK, but the regions are listed separately, so you choose the ones you want¹. For Scotland that means Orkney and Shetland, Highlands and Eilean Siar, Grampian, Strathclyde, Central Tayside and Fife, and South West Scotland, Lothian Borders¹. Northern Ireland and Wales each appear as single regions¹.

Where you are also changes who else is involved. In Northern Ireland, the Met Office works with partners to raise awareness of weather events that may result in flooding impacts for people and property²⁵. In Wales, Carmarthenshire Council's adverse weather pages point residents to Met Office email alerts and the Weather App²⁶.

The practical upshot is the same in all four nations: sign up once, choose every region you care about, and check the forecast rather than relying on a single alert. If you have family in another part of the UK, add their region too.

Helping others stay informed

Signing up is free and takes minutes, which makes it one of the easiest things you can do for someone else. If a neighbour or relative would struggle to set it up themselves, you can help them choose their regions and install the app.

For anyone who needs extra support in an emergency, there is also the Priority Services Register, run by energy and water suppliers. It is worth checking whether an older or disabled relative is on it. Our guide to Extra Help in an Emergency explains who qualifies and how to register.