UK cold weather: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan activates emergency protocol as UKHSA alert extended

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has activated the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol in London for the third time this winter. This comes as temperatures could drop to as low as minus 6 degrees.

The announcement that the protocol has been triggered once more comes after the current Level 2 cold weather alert by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was extended until midday on Wednesday, February 8.

The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) will see charities and councils all over London open emergency accommodation for those who need it most when temperatures drop below freezing.

The Met Office is predicting a cold rest of the week for the capital too, saying “Early light rain clearing during Thursday morning, then dry with sunny spells. Becoming more cloudy Friday and Saturday, but mostly dry. Some overnight freezing fog patches are possible.”

Khan has also urged people to donate where they can, pointing people towards the charity ‘Tap London’ via the official Twitter page of the mayor. The main goal of the charity is to tackle rising levels of youth homelessness.

It is the fourth year in a row that the charity has paired with the mayor, and shared a shocking statistic that ‘numbers of young people sleeping rough in London have risen by a devastating 47 percent’.

As mentioned, it is the third time this winter that the protocol has been activated, and has so far seen around 1,200 people taken off of the streets and potentially saving many of them from succumbing to the weather.