Cold weather to ring in New Year as amber health alerts issued

Key Highlights

• Most of England will be cloudy overnight, and there will be patches of frost and fog which could mean "tricky travelling conditions" on Monday morning, the forecaster said. Brisk northwesterly winds could bring wintry showers to the areas of northern England and drizzle in the lead up to New Year's Day.
• On Friday, temperatures in the the North East and North West will feel colder due to the wind chill - a temperature of -4C could feel more like -8C, the Met Office said.
• The agency also issued less serious yellow cold health alerts for the rest of England, covering the East Midlands, West Midlands, South East, South West, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and London. Temperatures in areas covered by the yellow warning are expected to fall to around highs of 6C and lows below freezing from New Year's Day. Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA, said it was "vital" to check in on friends, family and neighbours that are vulnerableThe predicted temperatures can have a "serious impact" on the health of some people, leading to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and chest infections, particularly for individuals over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing health conditions, he warned.
• Cold health alerts and weather warnings were issued for parts of the UK on Christmas Day, forcing several annual open water swimming events to be cancelled.
• How do cold weather health alerts work?Cold health alert as parts of UK set to freeze on Christmas DayHealth.