Planning for cold weather
The Department of Health has produced a national Cold Weather Plan which is based on the warnings you will often see on national and local weather forecasts.
Cold Weather Plan 2012 (opens in a new window) 
and its related Action Cards describe useful prompts for safety and wellbeing in winter and the best time to take action.
The time at which specific actions should be taken is based on the Met Office Cold Weather Alert Levels. These are explained at the beginning of the plan. These alert levels are now commonplace on all UK weather forecasts across the media. To directly monitor the regional forecast and see existing alert levels please see
the Met Office website (opens in a new window) .
There is an average of 27,000 extra winter deaths each year resulting from cold weather. By following the documents produced by the Department of Health families, communities, and health and social care settings will be able to reduce the risk to vulnerable people.
