Rare red weather alert issued to West Midlands

The West Midlands has been issued a rare red heat health alert this week.Author: Molly HookingsPublished 25 minutes agoThe West Midlands has been issued a rare red heat health alert.It comes into force at 1am on Wednesday (24 June) and ends at 11pm on Thursday (25 June).The UK Health Security Agency says the risk level is 16, which is the highest score.In a statement on the website, it said: “Severe impacts are expected across health and social care services due to the high temperatures, including:increased risk to life across the whole population, with significant impacts on older people significantly increased demand on all health and social care servicesthe heat affecting the ability of the workforce to deliver serviceshot indoor environments making provision of care challenging and national critical infrastructure failures, such as generators and power outageswater‑related incidents may increase, including risks from cold‑water shock and drowning It’s a temperatures soar this week, hitting 39 Celsius in Birmingham, Coventry, and Wolverhampton on Thursday.First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.