{"id":33117,"date":"2025-04-19T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33117\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T14:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:10:11","slug":"more-than-1300-people-died-of-extreme-heat-in-england-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33117\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,300 people died of extreme heat in England last year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FourFour heatwaves in England in 2024 killed more than 1,300 people \"Catherine Catherine Early<\/a> 19\/04\/2025 15:00 4 min <\/p>\n

Extreme heat caused 1,311 deaths <\/strong>during four heatwaves in summer 2024 in England, according to official figures.<\/p>\n

People aged over 85 years were more likely to die<\/strong> of heat than others, with those aged 75 to 84 years next most vulnerable, according to the data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Public Health England. Younger people did not die during the 2024 heatwaves.<\/p>\n

There were 282 more deaths<\/strong> linked to heat than the health services had predicted, based on how hot it was during the summer, and the number of deaths similar temperatures had caused in the past.<\/p>\n

Four heatwaves<\/p>\n

The first heatwave <\/strong>began on 24 June and lasted four days. A \u2018yellow\u2019 health warning was issued for the North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West.<\/p>\n

Some 394 people died <\/strong>during this heatwave, particularly among the elderly, and those in care homes and hospitals. The highest number of daily deaths during the whole summer was seen on the first day of this first heatwave.<\/p>\n

The second heat episode lasted from 18-20 July, with a yellow health alert<\/strong> issued for the East and West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West. This heatwave caused the highest number of deaths, at 467, with an average of 156 per day.<\/p>\n

These figures represent families who\u2019ve lost someone they love dearly, and it shows the climate crisis isn\u2019t something happening in the future – it\u2019s now, it\u2019s very close to home. <\/p>\n

The third heatwave<\/strong> took place from 30 July to 2 August, and yellow alerts were issued for Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West. <\/p>\n

Around 275 people died during this heatwave, particularly in the West Midlands. During the fourth heatwave from 11-13 August, 142 people died<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"ElderlyElderly people are more at risk from extreme heat (c)sabinevanerp_Pixabay<\/p>\n

The South East had the highest number of deaths<\/strong> from extreme heat over the summer, at 259. A significant number of deaths associated with the heat was also seen in the North West, West Midlands, East of England, London and South West. <\/p>\n

The highest number of deaths were in care homes,<\/strong> with a total of 496. Those taking place in hospitals were next highest, at 230 deaths, while 358 people died in their own homes.<\/p>\n

Circulatory diseases<\/strong> caused 440 of the heat-related deaths, followed by dementia and alzheimers, with 229 deaths. There were also a significant number of heat-related deaths among people who already had flu or pneumonia.<\/p>\n

Coolest since 2015<\/p>\n

The deaths from extreme heat came despite the summer of 2024 being the coolest for the UK since 2015<\/strong>. Only four heat waves took place, with no amber or red health alerts issued in any region of England. <\/p>\n

Scientists have predicted that<\/a> heat waves in England will become more intense, longer and more frequent<\/strong> due to climate change.<\/p>\n

Philip Evans, senior climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: \u201cThese figures represent families who\u2019ve lost someone they love dearly, and it shows the climate crisis isn\u2019t something happening in the future – it\u2019s now, it\u2019s very close to home<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four heatwaves in England in 2024 killed more than 1,300 people Catherine Early 19\/04\/2025 15:00 4 min Extreme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,10957,393,19435,4884,2461,16,15,19436],"class_list":{"0":"post-33117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-extreme-heat","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-heatwave","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-yellow-warning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114365033610494725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}