Weather-health alerts impact project: Improving awareness and action through partnership with UKHSA
Start date
April 2026End date
April 2027Overview
As climate change continues to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, the need for effective early warning systems has never been greater. In England alone, an estimated 1,311 deaths were linked to extreme heat during summer 2024, while 5,533 deaths were associated with cold weather during winter 2022/23. Helping health and social care providers prepare for these events is becoming an increasingly important public health priority.
Dr Thomas Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sociology and Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainability, will work alongside the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Met Office, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Surrey County Council to ensure that Weather-Health Alerts are easier to understand and translate into practical action during periods of extreme heat and cold.
Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Tom Roberts
Senior Lecturer Environmental Sociology
Biography
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist undertaking policy-relevant research on the relationships between people, environmental change, health and wellbeing.
My research examines how individuals, communities and organisations understand, experience and respond to environmental challenges, and how policy and practice can support more sustainable and resilient societies. My current work focuses particularly on climate adaptation and weather-health risk; environmental communication and public understandings of climate change; the relationships between nature, health and wellbeing; environmental crime and waste; and the environmental implications of everyday practices, including dog walking, volunteering and the use of urban green, blue and grey infrastructure.
A major strand of my research examines the health and societal impacts of extreme weather. I have worked extensively with the UK Health Security Agency and the Met Office on the development and evaluation of England's Weather-Health Alerting system, including research that contributed to the transition towards impact-based heat and cold health alerts. This work is now being extended through research with NHS and local-authority professionals to understand how weather-health warnings translate into frontline action.
I also lead and contribute to interdisciplinary research exploring how everyday interactions with the environment can generate both benefits and environmental pressures. This includes research with Surrey Hills National Landscape examining dog walking, biodiversity, animal welfare and human wellbeing; research on recreational litter picking and environmental volunteering; and the £2 million NERC-funded GP4Streets project investigating public engagement with urban green, blue and grey infrastructure.
My research is strongly collaborative and interdisciplinary, bringing together sociology and the wider social sciences with public health, environmental science, ecology and policy. I use a range of qualitative and participatory approaches, including ethnography, walking interviews, longitudinal interviews, deliberative workshops and action research. Increasingly, my work adopts a One Health perspective, recognising the interconnected relationships between human health and wellbeing, animals and the wider environment.
My research has been supported by organisations including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the UK Health Security Agency. I work closely with policymakers, practitioners and community organisations to ensure that research contributes to policy and practice, and regularly communicate environmental research to wider audiences through national media and public engagement.
From 2023 to 2026, I was a founding Co-Director of the University of Surrey's Institute for Sustainability, helping to establish and develop the Institute and build interdisciplinary research and external partnerships across the University.
Partners
Planned Impact
The project builds on several years of Surrey research into weather-health warning systems, that informed the UK's move away from traditional temperature-threshold alerts towards today's impact-based Weather-Health Alert system. Rather than relying solely on forecast temperatures, the new approach considers the likely health impacts of severe weather, allowing organisations to make better-informed decisions to protect vulnerable communities.
Independent evaluation undertaken by the University of Surrey found that the new alert system has already improved planning and decision-making across health and local government. However, the research also identified that more work is needed to ensure frontline staff fully understand how to interpret alerts and implement appropriate actions during periods of extreme weather.
The new project will address this challenge by working directly with frontline health and social care professionals across England to co-design practical communication tools explaining alert levels and the actions required when alerts are issued. Through workshops, focus groups, and regional case studies, researchers will ensure the materials are shaped by those who use the system every day.
The resources will be designed for use within UKHSA guidance, NHS organisations and local authorities, helping strengthen preparedness, improve communication and support faster, more consistent responses during extreme weather events.
The project demonstrates how University of Surrey research is informing national policy while delivering practical benefits for frontline services and communities. Working closely with UKHSA and the Met Office, the team hopes the findings will not only strengthen the Weather-Health Alert system in England but also contribute to the development of similar impact-based alerting systems internationally.
"The UK has made significant progress by introducing an impact-based Weather-Health Alert system, but effective warning systems only work if people understand them and know how to respond. This project is about working directly with frontline staff to develop practical tools that make the system even more effective. As climate change continues to increase weather-related health risks, improving preparedness across health and social care has never been more important." Dr Thomas Roberts