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Guides/Weather

Heatwave and
cold snap

The weather that kills most people in Britain is not the storm; it is the quiet week of heat or cold that follows. Both have the same answer: one room, kept right, and a knock on the door of whoever lives alone.

5 min readChecked against UK Health Security Agency, Met Office and NHS guidanceUpdated November 2026Print this guide
Heatamber or red alert

Shade, water, the vulnerable

  1. Stay out of the sun between 11 and 3, and keep the house cool: curtains closed on the sunny side by day, windows open at night when the air outside is cooler than inside.
  2. Drink before you are thirsty, water over alcohol, and eat salty food. Babies, older people and anyone on diuretics or heart medicines dehydrate fastest.
  3. Pick the coolest room, usually north-facing or downstairs, and spend the hottest hours there. A damp cloth on the neck and a bowl of water for the feet beat a fan in a hot room.
  4. Never leave a person or an animal in a parked car. Check on neighbours who live alone twice a day, and ring 111 if anyone is confused, has stopped sweating, or cannot keep water down. Heatstroke is 999.
Coldamber or red alert

One warm room, layers, and the boiler

  1. Heat the rooms you use to at least 18 degrees if anyone in the house is older, very young, or unwell, and sleep in the warmest room. Shut the doors and close the curtains at dusk.
  2. Layers beat one thick jumper; a hat indoors is not a joke. The grey pouch's hand warmers, beanie, gloves and foil blanket are for the night the boiler fails.
  3. Hot food and hot drinks through the day. Keep moving; an hour sitting still in a cold room drops your temperature faster than the walk to the shop.
  4. If the heating is off for a night, follow the power-cut guide: one room, hand warmers, foil over the fleece, never a camping stove or barbecue indoors. Carbon monoxide kills more people in cold snaps than the cold does.

Never

Never heat a room with a gas hob, a barbecue, a generator or a patio heater, and never seal a room with a flame in it. Warmth with no air is how carbon monoxide gets you.

Bothevery time

Who to check on

  1. Make a list of the people in your street who live alone, are over 75, or have a child under one. Knock, don't ring; a phone going unanswered tells you nothing.
  2. Ask three things: are you warm or cool enough, have you eaten and drunk today, do you have your medicines. Then tell them you'll be back tomorrow.
  3. If someone is too hot, too cold, confused or not making sense, that is 111 for advice and 999 if they are drowsy or cannot be woken.
  4. Register anyone vulnerable with the Priority Services Register, so the network and the water company know to check on them in a cut.

Sources, checked November 2026