AN AMBER heat-health warning is in place for Gloucestershire until 9pm this evening.

The level 3 alert was put out by the Met Office and Public Health England yesterday.

The heat health warning system is described by the Met Office as a "forewarning of periods of high temperatures which may affect the health of the UK public."

It is designed to help social and healthcare services manage during periods of extreme heat.

Yesterday it was at level 2 (yellow) - "triggered when the risk is 60% or above for threshold temperatures being reached in one or more regions on at least two consecutive days and the intervening night" according to the Met Office.

It warns that social health services should be "alert" and ready to take action to reduce harm from a potential heatwave.

Now it has been raised to level 3 (amber) - the Met Office says "there is a 90% probability of Heat-Health criteria being met between 0800 on Thursday and 2100 on Friday in parts of England."

This level alert is triggered when it "confirms threshold temperatures for one of more regions have been reached for one day and the following night, and the forecast for the next day has a greater than 90% confidence level that the day threshold temperature will be met."

It means social and health services are required "to target specific action at high-risk groups."

At the level 3 stage, the advice is "to look out for others, especially older people and young children and babies and people with underlying health conditions, for whom extreme heat can be dangerous".

The latest alert comes alongside a thunderstorm warning in Gloucestershire from midday today, going into tomorrow. 

The Met Office says there could be flooding in some areas and disruption in a few places.