Sharp cold snaps and extreme heat have led to tens of thousands of deaths in the United States over the past quarter century, according to a new study.

More than 69,000 deaths occurred in the U.S. between 1999 and 2024 in which extreme cold or heat was listed as the primary or a contributing cause, the researchers reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.

This amounts to a total of 69,000 deaths, meaning that 1 in every 1,000 deaths was associated with severe cold or heat, the researchers noted.

“Our findings show that exposure to heat and cold continues to claim thousands of lives each year in the United States, and these deaths are largely preventable,” said Dr. Sheida Abohashem, senior investigator at the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The researchers found that 65% of these deaths were linked to cold and 35% to heat.

“Although most temperature-related deaths are still caused by cold exposure, heat-related mortality is expected to rise as climate change accelerates,” Abohashem said.