Heatwave caused deaths to rise by thousands above summer average

THE warmest April day in almost 70 years caused an increase in deaths, official figures have shown.

Temperatures reached almost 86F (30C) in parts of the UK in a “mini-heatwave” on April 19, making it the hottest April day since 1949.

Overall during April, May and June there were almost 3,000 deaths above the five-year average.

The data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there were more than 240 deaths beyond what was expected on April 18 and 19, when temperatures reached a high of 84.4F (29.1C) in central London.

The ONS said 243 more deaths were observed than the five-year average for the same two dates and that the toll “rose well above the maximum number of deaths seen on those dates from 2013 to 2017”.

There were then almost 400 fewer deaths over the following weekend between April 21 and 23. The pattern could be down to “short-term mortality displacement”, the report said, referring to where a short-term event accelerates the deaths of vulnerable people thus removing them from the pool of those who would have died during the following few days.

The five-year average number of deaths for April 19 is 1,240. This year there were 1,372 deaths on that day. The average for April 18 and 19 is 2,460, while the two days added together had more than 2,700 deaths this year.

A similar pattern happened during the June heatwave, with 382 more deaths between June 25 and June 30 than the five-year average.

If temperatures rise above 76F (24.5C), Public Health England warns that heat-related deaths may occur.

Extremely cold weather over the winter also contributed to a much higher than average death rate.

During the first three months of the year there were 18,145 more deaths than the five-year average. All but one day had a higher number of deaths than the five-year average, with a large spike on Jan 23, when 1,781 people died, compared to an average of 1,450 over the previous five years.

The pattern continued throughout late February and early March, as the country was hit by the “Beast from the East”, which brought extremely low temperatures, snow and ice.

In the UK, 17 people were believed to have died in incidents such as car accidents and falls which were a direct consequence of the cold blast, as well as Storm Emma, which hit parts of the country at the beginning of March, causing high winds.

“Deaths began to climb well above the five-year average during this cold spell and remained high for almost two weeks after temperatures began to rise,” the ONS said.

This year, MPS on the environmental audit committee said that heat-related deaths would triple in 35 years unless government takes action to make urban areas more tolerable in the heat.