Carmarthenshire Secondary Schools to Close Due to Historic Red Heat Warning

Secondary schools across Carmarthenshire will shut their doors to pupils this week as a rare and dangerous Red Extreme Heat Warning sweeps across Wales.

Following urgent discussions, local headteachers confirmed that all secondary campuses in the county will close on Wednesday 24 June and Thursday 25 June. The decision comes as the Met Office warns of an unprecedented combination of high humidity and temperatures forecast to exceed 35°C—shattering previous June records.

The closure will force thousands of pupils onto remote learning platforms just weeks before the end of the summer term.

Key Details at a Glance

“Classrooms Substantially Hotter Than Outside”

In a joint statement, Carmarthenshire Secondary School Headteachers stated that internal temperature monitoring had already shown classrooms significantly exceeding safe comfort levels.

Due to a phenomenon known as solar gain (where buildings trap and magnify the sun’s heat), limited ventilation, and thermal mass retention, several rooms became substantially hotter than the outside air.

Compounding the crisis, overnight temperatures are not expected to drop below 20°C—a meteorological event known as a “tropical night.” This prevents older school buildings from cooling down before the next morning, rendering them unsafe for prolonged occupation.

“Our foremost responsibility is to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of our pupils and staff,” the headteachers’ statement read. “Although every effort has been made to mitigate the impact of the heat… our school buildings were not designed to operate safely during periods of extreme heat.”

Legal Obligations and Safety Realities

While the UK does not currently have a statutory maximum working temperature for schools, headteachers noted they have a strict legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to ensure indoor working environments remain reasonable.

Despite mitigation efforts earlier in the week—including adjusted uniforms, extra hydration breaks, and utilizing shaded outdoor areas—the oppressive combination of heat and humidity made continued face-to-face teaching unviable.

Individual schools will contact parents directly with specific instructions for online learning tasks. Headteachers apologized for the short notice and the subsequent childcare disruption, but emphasised that the action was a “proportionate and necessary” response to a genuine public health threat.

Schools are currently scheduled to reopen as normal on Friday 26 June, provided weather conditions subside as forecast.