The aim of the plan, which will be active between 16 May and 30 September, is to prevent and reduce the negative effects of heat on health, especially in the most vulnerable groups: the elderly, pregnant women, children and chronically ill people.

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Effects of Excess Temperatures on Health

Summer Plan 2024

The Ministry of Health is activating the National Plan of Preventive Actions on the Effects of Excess Temperatures on Health. The national plan aims to prevent and mitigate the negative effects that excessive heat can have on the health of citizens, especially in at-risk or more vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, pregnant women, minors and people with chronic illnesses, as well as those groups who work or exercise outdoors.

One of the priority actions of the plan is to alert the health authorities and the public sufficiently in advance of possible risk situations. To this end, the Ministry of Health will provide the Autonomous Communities with daily forecasts of maximum temperatures prepared by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) as well as the levels of health risk due to high temperatures. This information will also be available to the public on the Ministry’s website.

The Plan defines for each territorial area a health impact temperature threshold above which a statistically significant relationship between mortality and heat has been observed.

Each day, the Ministry of Health establishes a daily risk level for each territorial area based on the difference between the temperatures predicted by AEMET for that day and the following two days and the health impact temperature threshold. There are four risk levels (level 0 (green), no risk, level 1 (yellow), low risk, level 2 (orange), medium risk and level 3 (red), high risk) according to which the Ministry and the Autonomous Communities take appropriate risk communication and prevention measures.

The main novelty of the Plan in 2024 is the introduction of the Meteoalert Zone used by AEMET as the territorial level for extreme heat warnings, which complements the provincial level used in previous plans. The calculation of the new thresholds per weather alert zone has been carried out by the Climate Change, Health and Urban Environment Research Group of the Carlos III Health Institute. The extreme heat warnings at Meteoalert zone level will be available from 3 June.

This information is updated daily on the Ministry of Health’s website. The public will also be able to subscribe until 30 September to a free service to receive the temperature forecast and the risk level for the requested province by e-mail and mobile phone.