Heatwave Anxiety Grips UK Parents in Record June
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- June heatwave was confirmed as the warmest June on record in England, leaving parents like 36-year-old Tavia Watts in Cheltenham reporting temperatures above 30C in her young children's bedrooms.
- Watts's Instagram reel voicing her heatwave fears received over 18,000 likes and 1,700 reposts, with comments flooding in from therapists offering coping mechanisms.
- University of Bath research estimates 4.6% of people in the UK experience climate anxiety, with a 2025 study identifying young people and women as the groups most at risk.
- Dr. Caroline Hickman of the University of Bath said her climate-anxiety patients expressed suicidal ideation, considered terminating pregnancies, or wanted to sell homes and move somewhere cooler during June's heatwave.
- Ecologist Dr. Francis Windram relocated from Ascot to Lancaster specifically for the cooler climate, though he still purchased a portable AC unit in spring as a precaution.
- Dr. Emma Lawrance of the University of Oxford recommended talking to others, joining community action groups like the Climate Psychology Alliance, and staying physically cool to manage anxiety symptoms.
Why it matters: With June confirmed as England's hottest on record and 4.6% of UK adults estimated to experience climate anxiety, psychologists say repeat heatwaves are triggering anticipatory anxiety — with some patients reporting suicidal ideation, desire to relocate, or pregnancy termination during the June event.
