The purpose of this service is to warn the public and emergency responders of severe or hazardous weather which has the potential to cause danger to life or widespread disruption.
They are issued in response to eight different weather elements: rain, thunderstorms, lightning, snow, ice, fog, wind and extreme heat, the newest type of warning, which was added in June 2021.
[1] Warnings are given a colour depending on a combination of both the likelihood of the event happening and the impact the conditions may have and could be yellow, amber or red.
Yellow means that people should plan ahead thinking about possible travel delays, or the disruption of your day-to-day activities.
Amber means people need to be prepared to change plans and protect themselves, their family and community from the impacts of the severe weather based on the forecast from the Met Office.