Published: February 2026

As the climate in Wakefield is changing, we have been seeing an increase in warmer weather and rising temperatures. On hotter days the body responds through sweating and increasing blood flow to the skin. This can impact health conditions affecting the heart, blood vessels and lungs. It can also lead to dehydration, heat rash, heat stroke and heat exhaustion all of which impact on health directly as illnesses themselves or exacerbating long term conditions [1], [2]. Further indirect impacts can include affecting mental health and wellbeing and increasing the risk of harmful events such as accidents and violence. Long periods of hot weather can also affect the health service and delivery of care including leading to overheating in hospital buildings affecting staff and equipment and impacts on supply chains [3].

Certain populations can be more vulnerable to the effects of heat and may find it harder to respond [4], this can lead to inequalities, on this page we give the number of people in Wakefield who may fall into some of the more vulnerable groups. The impact of heat on health is affected by three main factors:

• Exposure to heat
• Vulnerability to heat
• Ability to adapt and respond to heat

In the future it is expected heating levels will increase but there are lots of different modelled scenarios of what might happen and how it will affect health. Impacts will depend how much warming will take place and how much adaptation we make to help to prevent some of the health effects. One model used in UK future predictions is called the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) and is the one used by UK Government and other organisations [5].

Headlines

• High temperatures impact health in a number of ways increasing risk of dehydration, heat stroke and exhaustion alongside exacerbating long-term conditions such as cardiovascular and kidney disease and asthma, overall mortality also increases during heatwaves.
• Health and social services are also impacted by the heat due to additional emergency admissions, overheating of medical buildings, staff working in hot environments and infrastructure issues.
• The climate of Wakefield is changing with higher average temperatures and more hot summer days where temperatures are at a level that can impact health.
• Heat health alerts are issued at a regional level when there may be a risk to services or health due to the heat, when an alert takes place plans and actions are put into place locally and nationally to reduce the impact on health, there are different levels depending on the temperature and risk.
• Living in more urban environments and particular types of housing e.g. flats can increase the risk of overheating, Wakefield city centre is one area of the district that has more of the types of housing that is at risk of overheating.
• People in younger or older age groups or living with existing conditions that are impacted by heat are some of the groups who are more vulnerable, many people in Wakefield fall into one or more of these groups.
• Different areas of the district are at different risk from the heat due to: factors that can impact temperatures, the amount of vulnerable people and the ability of the population in the area to respond to heat effects.
• There are ways nationally and locally we are adapting to reduce the impact of heat, this can include developing the best systems for health and wider services to monitor and respond to heat alerts, improving housing and city centre design, supporting vulnerable populations, providing education and advice about high temperatures and health and creating resilience in health and care services.

Heatwaves and heat alerts

When there is a likelihood of very high temperatures or a prolonged period of hot weather the chances of impacts on health and services increase and plans to deal with this are implemented. The Met Office has developed a heatwave definition to allow consistent messaging about when a heatwave is underway. A UK heatwave threshold is met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold. The threshold varies by UK county and for Wakefield as a part of West Yorkshire it is 25°C [6].
The United Kingdom Health Standards Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office have developed a regional heat and cold health alert system which is updated daily. There are different levels of heat health alerts depending on the severity and action required, they are in order of severity, green (no alert), yellow (response), amber (enhanced response) and red (emergency response) [7]. Current alerts can be accessed through an online dashboard or you can sign up to email alerts [8]. In 2025 there were five heat alerts in Yorkshire and the Humber, two were amber and three were yellow.

Every year the UKHSA publishes an Adverse Weather and Health Plan to give some guidance on actions that need to be taken in the event of extreme weather including heat to protect health [9]. Local responses by health and social care providers to heat alerts are driven partly by national action card checklists to make sure staff are carrying out risk assessments and providing extra support relating to heat [10].
Wider responses to alerts are partly co-ordinated by local resilience forums (LRFs), which are multi-agency partnerships made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the NHS, the Environment Agency and others. The LRFs aim to plan and prepare for localised incidents and catastrophic emergencies. They work to identify potential risks and produce emergency plans to either prevent or mitigate the impact of any incident on their local communities. Wakefield District is part of the West Yorkshire LRF [11].
In preparation for or during periods of hot weather advice is given to local residents by Wakefield Council. This includes providing resources and links to further support on the Be Safe This Summer web page to help people keep healthy in hot weather [12].

Heat effects on health

Health impacts

Hot weather and high temperatures can lead to increased healthcare usage, this can be due to both heat related illness such as sunburn, heat rash, heat stroke, heat exhaustion and dehydration. It can also lead to the exacerbation of existing conditions including cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions, which are also impacted by changes in air quality due to heat, and kidney disease. Heat can also exacerbate mental health conditions and lead to higher numbers of accidents and injuries. Warmer nights can also lead to difficulties with sleeping which can affect overall wellbeing [3]. The image below from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) gives an overview of some of the direct and indirect effects of hot weather.

The UKHSA present a dashboard containing syndromic surveillance data (the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting health-related data to provide an early warning of health threats) for calls, appointments and attendances for patients presenting with symptoms related to the health impact of hot weather, including heat, heatstroke and sunburn, across England taken from remote health advice (NHS 111), GP in-hours and emergency department reporting. The seasonal indicators for hot weather are reported from 1 June to 30 September [15].
Warmer weather may also lead to a change in patterns of infection and vector borne diseases, this is a complex picture as the changes will depend on the type of infection considered but it is known some types of infectious diseases are more common in areas with higher temperatures whereas others are less common at hotter times of the year. Patterns of vector borne diseases may change as higher temperatures can increase the number of insects like mosquitos in the UK that could carry the pathogens that cause illneses like malaria, Dengue fever, West Nile Virus amd Zika but these are not currently found in the UK but are being carefully monitored [16,17].

Health services, social care and wider impact

Health services themselves can also be impacted by hot weather, possible impacts include increased emergency admissions, patient distress, staff discomfort, failure of essential equipment such as refrigeration, disruption to IT and laboratory services and degradation or loss of medicines [3]. NHS Trusts and other health service organisations have heatwave plans to identify actions to be taken in preparation for and in the event of heatwaves of different levels to reduce their impact on patient health and hospital services. Overheating incidents are recorded across the NHS and identify the number of occasions, where the daily maximum temperature in each occupied ward or clinical area exceeded 26˚C, 2023/24 national data showed a 53% rise in overheating incidents triggering a risk assessment from 2016/17 to 2023/24, with a peak in 2022/23 likely reflecting the record 40-degree temperatures in July 2022 [18]. In the 2024/25 financial year no such incidents were recorded in Wakefield [19].
Adult social care and other services that work with vulnerable people can also be impacted by hot weather whilst also ensuring those they care for are kept safe. Advice on how to support vulnerable people is provided by the Government [4]. Healthcare staff themselves can also be at risk of overheating impacts and advice is provided by the Royal College of Nursing [20].
A UKHSA commissioned study was carried out in 2022 to help understand the attitudes and actions of social care practitioners and to understand the contexts in which they were operating during the heatwave in the summer of that year [21]. The study found most care workers had a good understanding of who was most at risk from the heat. They found domiciliary care workers found it most difficult to monitor and support the health of those they were caring for due to only seeing them for short periods of time, struggling themselves with the heat due to travelling in non-air conditioned cars between appointments and finding that those they were caring for wanted to keep wearing warm clothing or keeping the heating on due to routine or that they didn’t always feel the heat. A more recent study in London found care home staff were more likely to report care homes being uncomfortably hot whereas residents were less likely to report the same thing, both these findings suggest older people may be more at risk of overheating without realising [22]. A Joseph Rowntree report in 2016 measured temperatures across four care home residences and found that several were above the recommended heat thresholds during summer months [23].
Wider infrastructure disruption to logistics or travel due to rail or road damage due to heat may also impact health and care services and their ability to deliver care, this may include the delivery of medicines and essential equipment or ambulance journeys by road [24] it is already known that ambulance call outs increase during periods of hot weather from syndromic surveillance data [25] and wider research [26].

Heat exposure

Staying in hospital or communal establishments

Those living or staying in communal buildings such as care homes, hospitals, temporary accommodation or hostels and prisons are also at higher risk of heat effects as they may have less control over their local environment. In Wakefield there 97 CQC registered care homes, 2 hospitals (plus Dewsbury in the same Trust), nearly 270 households in temporary accommodation including 243 children [32] and 2 prisons.

Working or being outdoors in hot weather

There are also those who have higher exposure to heat either indoors or outdoors e.g. those who are working in a hot environment or carrying out intensive work e.g. construction workers [3]. Several industries in Wakefield could be impacted by hot working environments including construction, logistics, warehouse work, glass manufacture and even office work if temperatures become high enough indoors. Risk assessments are used to monitor the impact of heat and any adjustments needed in the workplace. It is difficult to estimate how many people in Wakefield would be affected by heat due to their occupation.
People who walk or cycle to work or who take part in physical activity outdoors may also be at higher risks from the effects of heat if they do not take precautions to reduce their heat exposure [3].

Vulnerable and at risk groups

Groups at higher risk

The Wakefield population

The population of Wakefield District has been increasing, between the 2011 and 2021 Census the population of Wakefield increased by 8.4%, from around 325,800 in 2011 to 353,300 in 2021. This is higher than the overall increase for England (6.6%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (3.7%) [34]. Though Wakefield’s population rank remained the same being the 23rd largest local authority population in England. As of 2021, Wakefield is the sixth most densely populated of Yorkshire and The Humber’s 21 local authority areas, with around seven people living on each football pitch-sized area of land [34].

Older people

Older people are at higher risk due to a reduction in ability to control body temperature, mobility difficulties making it harder to keep hydrated or close curtains and open windows and having higher rates of health conditions which increase heat risk. There are currently over 70,000 people in Wakefield District aged 65 and over. The population of Wakefield is expecting to have an aging profile over the next 25 years with the percentage of people aged 65+ increasing from 19.1% to 22% and the percentage of people aged 85+ increasing from 2.3% to 4.0% [35].

Young children

Children aged 0-5 can get hot more quickly and can’t always communicate they are too hot, which can lead to increased risks of heat stroke and dehydration. In Wakefield there are about 7,500 children in this age group [36].

During pregnancy

Pregnancy can increase the risk of dehydration and heatstroke due to the extra demands and hormonal fluctuations. In severe cases high temperatures can lead to birth complications including low birthweight and preterm birth. In Wakefield in 2023 there were 3,502 live births in the District [37].

People with living with a disability, ill health and long term conditions

People with disability may find it difficult to respond to heat changes, in the 2021 Census 20.5% of Wakefield’s population (age-standardised) reported they had a disability, that is around 1 in 5 residents, 9.4% said that it limited their day to day activities a lot and 11.1% a little (age standardised percentages) [38]. In the latest primary care data 2,499 residents of all ages (0.7% of the Wakefield District population) have a learning disability [39].
Some long terms conditions are directly impacted by increases in heat and the body’s response to it, others may be impacted by indirect effects such as the increase in air pollution increasing asthma symptoms during hotter weather. Heat can impact both physical and mental health. In the Wakefield Adult Health Survey in 2023 3 in 5 respondents reported having a long term health condition [30]. The number of people in Wakefield with some of the main conditions that can be affected by heat are below (people may have more than one condition, percentage of the population in brackets, data for 2024/25, taken from GP Quality Outcome Framework indicator figures in OHID Fingertips data):

• Asthma: 26,669 (7.7%)
• Chronic kidney disease: 15,206 (5.2%)
• Coronory Heart Disease: 12,279 (3.3%)
• Hypertension: 64,001 (17.3%)
• Severe mental illness: 3,512 (1.0%)

Medications

Some medications can also reduce a person’s physiological ability to respond to heat including antipsychotics, antidepressants, diuretics and antihypertensive medication. The stability and efficacy of some medications can be affected by the heat as they need to be stored at optimal temperatures such as insulin and some types need to be stored out of sunlight.

Overlapping risks

It is likely some people will fall into more than one risk group for the impact of heat on their health. They will then be affected by multiple factors; this means health advice needs to be individually tailored to ensure all factors are considered for each person. In some cases, those who are vulnerable to heat will also be vulnerable to other climate related risks such as cold weather, floods or droughts as there will be common risk factors such as poor quality housing, deprivation and living with long term conditions and/or living with a disability [3].

Geographical areas of Wakefield at higher risk

Some areas of Wakefield are at higher risk both of exposure and vulnerability to the heat. A recent analysis by Friends of the Earth identified the areas in England most exposed to extreme heat using satellite-measured land surface temperature (LST) and modelled air temperature captured during the 2022 heatwaves [40]. Within these most exposed (high heat) neighbourhoods they also counted the number of care homes, nurseries and hospitals to identify areas at enhanced risk due to higher levels of vulnerable populations and infrastructure. These results were then aggregated to geographical areas called Middle Super Output Areas (MSOAs) which are defined by the Office for National Statistics. They comprise between 2,000 and 6,000 households and have a usually resident population between 5,000 and 15,000 persons. In Wakefield there are 45 MSOAs of which 19 were at high heat and enhanced risk and 26 were high heat but not enhanced risk. The areas at highest risk tended to be in Wakefield City, the Northeast and Southeast areas of the district. A separate analysis by Climate Just using a slightly different set of indicators which were more aligned to looking at a wider section of the population who may be at risk or struggle to respond found a similar pattern of areas [41].

Summary graphic of heat health risk groups in Wakefield

The summary below shows a summary of those groups at risk due to different exposures and some of the groups more vulnerable to heat effects:

Other factors impacted by heat

There are other areas that will be affected by hot weather but are not just impacted by heat these are not covered in this section but may be in future work and they include [33]:

• Drought
• Impacts on air quality and increased indoor and outdoor air pollution
• Loss of green spaces and biodiversity
• Higher levels of UV exposure from the sun increasing the risk of skin cancer and cataracts
• Food security – heat can affect crop harvests and yields, this can lead to the cost of food increasing and the availability of fruit and vegetables, more information on food poverty can be found on the related JSNA page
• National infrastructure impacts – the National Grid, computer networks and other major infrastructure such as water and sanitation systems could be impacted by prolonged periods of heat or very high temperatures

Adapting to heat effects

Each year there are usually several heat alerts and periods where temperatures rise. We can find ways to adapt to these heat periods and limit their impact on health as much as possible [3].
Adapting to heat effects can have lots of different approaches, these include:

• Making sure the built environment is adapted to reduce temperatures and increase ventilation and shade including retrofitting existing buildings and taking it into consideration in the construction of new homes and ensuring urban planning considers heat impacts e.g. adding shutters or shades to windows, building shaded courtyards and passive cooling approaches into city centre building design.
• Increasing access to shade and cool environments across the district, this can include increasing natural shade e.g. trees and opening public buildings as cool spaces e.g. libraries.
• Raising awareness of the symptoms of heat exposure and sending out public health messages relating to heat.
• Offering additional support and monitoring to those at highest risk who are vulnerable.
• Supporting organisations such as schools, care homes, charities and businesses to monitor and respond to heatwaves, signposting to advice on how to assess and respond to the risk e.g. adapting working hours where possible, allowing water breaks, scheduling major events at cooler times of the day.
• Making health and social services such as hospitals, other medical buildings and care homes resilient to heat effects.

The government are developing a Local Authority Risk and Adaptation Toolkit: Heat Edition which will help support local authorities to identify adaptations [42]. Adaptations to climate change including heat are part of the Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) [43] published by the UK Government and heat is covered in the Adverse Weather and Health Plan [44]. Many local organisations and health services will have their own heatwave plans based on national guidance plus local intelligence, charities and businesses have access to advice through information and guidance relevant to their own needs depending on the sector such as for teachers and those working in early years settings [45] and the Health and Safety Executive for businesses [46].
There is evidence households are unprepared for overheating and the levels of overheating are increasing [47]. Methods in construction and design of buildings such as adding shaded courtyard areas to blocks of flats, increasing the number of green and water features, making sure passive cooling and ventilation is part of the design process and using light covered surfaces [48]. Giving advice to residents about approaches that can help such as closing curtains for shading, staying in cooler rooms and opening windows at night can also help.
Help and advice on staying cool and hydrated in warm weather is shared across the district by Wakefield Council, the NHS and other support agencies. Those health and social care professionals supporting people in their own homes can also help monitor temperatures and help with hydration [4]. There are number of guidelines and advice for health professionals and unpaid carers to give advice and information.
Several studies in England found most vulnerable and potentially vulnerable adults do not consider themselves at risk of hot weather and are unaware of the effectiveness of important protective behaviours [49]. This suggests there is opportunity to improve messages and change public behaviours in response to hot weather.
Provision of public cool spaces and the availability of water fountains are other ways we can support people in hot weather. London has a cool spaces map to show where cooler spaces can be accessed here and this is something that could be developed in Wakefield.

References

1. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Beat the heat: staying safe in hot weather – GOV.UK
2.Xu J et al. (2025) Effects of extreme heat on physiology, morbidity, and mortality under climate change: mechanisms and clinical implications. BMJ 391:e084675
3. Mehrhof S, Bunn S (2024) Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) – Public health impacts of heat.
4. UK Health Security Agency (2024) Heat summary – supporting vulnerable people for all users.
5. UK Health Security Agency (2023) Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: Chapter 2. Temperature effects on mortality in a changing climate.
6. Met Office (2025) What is a heatwave?
7. UK Health Security Agency (2024) Heat-Health Alerting system.
8. UK Health Security Agency (2024) Weather health alert dashboard.
9. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Adverse weather and health plan.
10. UK Health Security Agency (2024) Heat Health alerting system.
11. Cabinet Office (2026) Local resilience forums: contact details.
12. Wakefield Council (2026) Be Safe This Summer.
13. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Heat mortality monitoring report, England: 2024.
14. Cole R et al. (2025) Projections of heat related mortality under combined climate and socioeconomic adaptation scenarios for England and Wales. PLOS Clim 4(7): e0000553.
15. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Summer seasonal environmental conditions.
16. UK Health Security Agency (2023) Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: Chapter 7: Effect of climate change infectious diseases in the UK.
17. UK Health Security Agency (2023) Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: Chapter 8: Direct and indirect effects of climate change on vectors and vector-borne diseases in the UK.
18. NHS England (2025) 4th Health and climate adaptation report NHS England.
19. NHS England (2025) Estates Returns Information Collection, Summary page and dataset for ERIC 2024/25.
20. Royal College of Nursing (2025) Working in hot weather
21. UK Health Security Agency (2024) Research exploring the experience of social care practitioners in relation to extreme temperatures.
22. Gupta R et al. (2021) Examining the magnitude and perception of summertime overheating in London care homes. Building Services Engineering Research & Technology. 42(6):653-675. doi:10.1177/01436244211013645
23. Gupta R et al. (2016) Care provision fit for a future climate.
24. Department for Transport (2025) Transport hazard summary series. Extreme heat
25. UK Health Security Agency (2026) National ambulance syndromic surveillance: weekly bulletins 2026
26. Xu Z et al (2023) Heat, heatwaves, and ambulance service use: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological evidence. Int J Biometeorol. 67(10):1523-1542.
27. 2021 Census (accessed 2026) 2021 Census interactive map of the percentage of people in Wakefield living in a flat, apartment or maisonette.
28. Wakefield JSNA (2025) Housing.
29. Yesudas MN (2024) UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence – The heat is on: the growing problem of overheating in domestic homes in England and the need for a national strategy.
30. Wakefield JSNA (2023) Adult Population Health Survey.
31. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2025) Rough sleeping snapshot in England: autumn 2024.
32. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2026) Tables on homelessness
33. UK Health Security Agency (2023) Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: State of the evidence 2023.
34. Office for National Statistics (2025) How the population changed in Wakefield: Census 2021Understanding ageing in Wakefield.
36. LG Inform and Office for National Statistics (2025) Population, all persons aged 0 to 4 in Wakefield
37. Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (2026) Fingertips child and maternal health profile: pregnancy and birth
38. 2021 Census (accessed 2026) 2021 Census interactive map of the percentage of people with a long-term health problem or disability, including conditions or illnesses relating to old-age.
39. Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (2026) Fingertips learning disability profile.
40. Friends of the Earth (2025) Which neighbourhoods are most vulnerable to heatwaves?
41. Climate Just (2025) Socio Spatial Heat Vulnerability Index, original reference: Lindley, S. J. et al. (2011) “Climate change, justice and vulnerability”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report, York.
42. UK Health Security Agency and Centre for Climate and Health Security (2026) Local Authority Risk and Adaptation Toolkit: Heat Edition.
43. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2023) Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3).
44. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Adverse Weather and Health Plan.
45. UK Health Security Agency (2025) Looking after children and those in early years settings before and during hot weather: teachers and other educational professionals.
46. Health and Safety Executive (accessed 2026) Temperature in the workplace – 7. Heat Stress.
47. Khosravi F et al. (2025) A nation unprepared: Extreme heat and the need for adaptation in the United Kingdom. Energy Research & Social Science. 124(104065).
48.Lomas, KJ (2021) Summertime overheating in dwellings in temperate climates. Buildings and Cities, 2(1): 487–494.
49. Erens, B (2021) Public attitudes to, and behaviours taken during, hot weather by vulnerable groups: results from a national survey in England BMC Public Health, 21(1631).

Resources

Wakefield Council Ready Set Summer heat advice page
Wakefield Council advice on some risks linked with activities that are more common during the summer and how the weather can have an impact on our health. Heloing people plan ahead and prepare for a safe and healthy summer.
Heat – UK Government page bringing together useful resources
Heat presents a number of risks to health. UK Government information and guidance to help understand the risks of heat and consider actions to protect health.
NHS Heatwave advice page
NHS page – most of us welcome hot weather, but when it’s too hot, there are health risks. During heatwaves, more people than usual get seriously ill or die. If hot weather hits this summer, make sure it does not harm you or anyone you know.
UKHSA Heat warning alerts web page
The Weather health alerting system is provided by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in partnership with the Met Office. It’s intended to provide early warning to the health and social care sector, the responder community, the voluntary and community sector and government departments when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and wellbeing of the population. The Weather health alerting system is made up of the Heat-Health Alerts (HHA) and Cold-Health Alerts (CHA). The Weather health alerting system underpins the Adverse Weather and Health Plan.