Heat warnings dominated, but articles were far less likely to explain what those warnings meant or connect the record temperatures to climate change.

by Rosie Frost (Journalism Insights Analyst), Alina Sandauer (Content Analyst),  Dr Lissa O’Reilly (Content Analyst) & Odyssée Ferrillo (Content Analyst) 

Part of Climate News Tracker’s June 2026 Heatwave Coverage Series.

Heat warnings featured in more than half of the 167 online articles Climate News Tracker analysed from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News. Only a quarter of those articles explained what the warnings meant and climate change was mentioned even less often.

Online news has now overtaken television as the UK’s leading source of news. So what did audiences learn during June’s record-breaking heatwave?

Climate News Tracker reviewed articles published between 20 and 28 June 2026, alongside BBC and Sky News live blogs run throughout the period.

Key Findings:

• Climate change was mentioned in 24% of articles.
• Health impacts featured in 48% of articles.
• Heat warnings featured in 57% of online articles.
• Climate scientists were quoted more often than politicians.
• Regional newsrooms produced most online heatwave coverage.

Climate change and fossil fuels

Climate change was mentioned in 40 of the 167 articles, 24% of the total and fossil fuels were mentioned as driving this warming in 5%.

This sits between the two other platforms in Climate News Tracker’s June heatwave series, as 62% of TV and radio programmes and 16% of Instagram and TikTok posts from public service media organisations linked the heatwave to climate change.

Where the climate link was made online, it often came from named scientists rather than reporters themselves.

An article from BBC Weather published on 24 June compared the June heatwave with the 1976 drought, one of the most severe on record. It cited Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at Newcastle University, on new research suggesting rainfall in parts of the country would be 20% lower than in 1976, and that existing water supply deficits could grow by 10%.

The same article cited Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford, warning that more frequent and intense heatwaves would cause harvest failures in the UK and internationally.

Political coverage of the heatwave connected more readily to climate policy than to climate science.

ITV’s 25 June piece on UK infrastructure, by senior science producer Rhiannon Hopley, cited Reading University scientists attributing the heatwave to climate change before moving into a Commons debate over Net Zero funding. Shadow Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho argued the transition plans were unsustainable, telling MPs: “I care about the consumer, I care about jobs.”

How live blogs were used

Live blogs were tracked separately from the standalone article analysis, providing additional context on how the story developed.

The BBC ran two live blogs, one covering 22 and 23 June and a separate one covering 24 and 25 June. Climate change was linked explicitly to the heatwave in 5 of 108 entries in the first blog and 14 of 173 in the second.

The first opened with Mark Poynting’s data-driven look at whether climate change had caused the heatwave, citing Met Office figures showing days over 32C had almost quadrupled in the past decade against a UK warming trend of roughly 0.25C per decade since the 1980s. Justin Rowlatt added a note of caution the same day, that one broken record doesn’t prove climate change but that repeated records across continents and seasons show the odds are shifting toward extremes.

Screen recording: BBC News live blog, 22 June 2026 (22–23 June blog), bbc.co.uk

The second blog referenced climate change more often, including a Met Office comment that human-induced climate change had made the heatwave more likely and more intense, and international figures including António Guterres and John Kerry weighing in on the wider climate debate.

Sky News ran a live blog from 22 to 27 June, with climate change linked explicitly to the heatwave in 12 of 206 entries.

It opened strongly on climate science: on 22 June, Professor Liz Bentley of the Royal Meteorological Society linked the heatwave to fossil fuel emissions, while Dr Akshay Deoras of the University of Reading described a “heat-dome driven furnace” affecting public health and infrastructure.

By 24 June, coverage shifted toward practical impact, with a report by Sky’s Victoria Seabrook on air conditioning sales up several hundred per cent year on year, and a University of Reading study finding only 4.3% of English homes had air conditioning.

Screen recording: Sky News live blog, 22–27 June 2026, news.sky.com

The blog closed on a stronger climate note, citing a World Weather Attribution study that found the heat would have been virtually impossible five decades earlier. Climate change also came up through the rest of the week in mentions of adaptation and policy, including a Met Office chief scientist’s comment on the heatwave being made more likely and intense by climate change, and an energy secretary’s remarks linking record heat with the case for climate action.

Where did the coverage come from?

Most standalone articles gave the heatwave substantive treatment. Of the 167 articles analysed, 138 covered it as a substantive story in its own right, 19 covered it as a substantive segment within a wider piece, and 10 gave it a passing reference.

This is perhaps to be expected as online articles are not bound by the fixed slot lengths of a TV or radio programme, or the brevity of a social media post, so there is more room for a story to be treated in depth.

Regional newsrooms produced the vast majority of online heatwave coverage, well ahead of general news, weather and specialist desks.

Weather desks accounted for 15 articles and general news desks 16, while climate and science specialists were given bylines in only 4 articles. Author attribution was unclear or missing on 37 articles.

Regional newsrooms are often closest to the immediate impacts of extreme weather, from school closures and transport disruption to pressures on local services. Their prominence suggests online coverage frequently followed the practical consequences of the heatwave as it unfolded, while specialist climate reporting accounted for only a small share of the coverage.

What voices were featured?

Business people were the most quoted group across the sample, featuring 39 times, ahead of people directly impacted by the heat at 33 and members of the public at 30.

The public category captured quotes such as reactions gathered at beaches or transport hubs, while impacted voices were people describing a direct effect of the heatwave on their own circumstances, such as parents whose children’s schools had closed or residents in overheating homes.

Emergency services (20) and education and social care voices (19) also featured heavily, reflecting the operational strain the heatwave placed on schools and public services.

Scientists were quoted 19 times, level with education and social care voices and just ahead of government bodies (16) and politicians (16). Health experts followed closely behind on 15 mentions, level with campaigners, and the Met Office was cited 13 times.

Warnings without explanation

Heat warnings were the single most common feature of online heatwave coverage, appearing in 95 of the 167 articles analysed. But only 25 of those articles explained what the warning meant in practice, such as who was most at risk or what action people should take.

This pattern showed up repeatedly across the sample. Several articles led with a warning headline and Met Office temperature figures, then closed without detailing the health advice attached to that warning.

Where explanation did appear, it tended to follow a consistent formula: naming the health risk to vulnerable groups, then noting wider risks to transport, water, energy and business continuity.

We were generous in how we defined an explanation, including articles where a warning was followed only by a brief note on “danger to health” or “risk to life.” Even on that generous definition, most articles that mentioned a warning did not explain what it meant.

Health impacts

Health impacts were mentioned in 80 of the 167 articles, 48% of the total articles covering the heatwave. This was one of the few areas where online coverage came close to matching TV and radio, where health impacts featured in 56% of programmes covering the heatwave.

Coverage often focused on specific risk groups or specific settings rather than the general population, such as advice on cold water shock, guidance for people with existing health conditions, or safety information aimed at children.

For example, BBC’s Newsround carried a 28 June article and video on water safety, aimed directly at children as a high-risk group, setting out the dangers of open water swimming during hot weather.

Why does this matter

Audiences following the June 2026 heatwave online were given extensive warning-led coverage and a reasonable amount of health guidance, most of it produced by regional newsrooms. But the climate science behind the heatwave, and the fossil fuel emissions driving it, featured in only a minority of articles.

Live blogs told a slightly different story. Both BBC and Sky’s rolling coverage carried more sustained climate science input from named specialists than standalone articles did, though even there, explicit climate attribution appeared in only a small share of individual entries.

The editorial opportunity, as with TV and radio, is to sustain that climate context beyond the warning itself, so that readers understand not just what is happening today, but what it means for future extreme weather and how communities can adapt.

Methodology

Coverage was collected from BBC Online, ITV Online, Channel 4, and Sky News. BBC Online, ITV, and Channel 4 were searched using NewsAPI, while Sky News was searched manually.

The search terms “heatwave” and “heat wave” were used to identify relevant coverage published between 20 and 28 June 2026. Each article was manually reviewed to ensure it met the inclusion criteria.

The quantitative analysis included only written news articles primarily focused on the UK heatwave; video, audio, live blogs, and other non-article content were excluded.

Individuals were recorded as being quoted only where their name appeared in the article. External links, embedded videos, and linked articles were not included in the analysis.

However, BBC and Sky News live blogs, video articles, and other related output were tracked separately to provide additional context and identify notable examples of coverage.