Melbourne, Australia – A new scientific study gave some frightening insights into the dangers of extreme weather conditions, which are only projected to get worse.

Extreme temperatures may be the cause of five million deaths per year globally, scientists wrote in a study published on Wednesday in The Lancet Planetary Health.

The team of researchers, led by professors at Monash University in Melbourne, analyzed mortality data from 750 locations in 43 countries over the period from 2000 to 2019. Global temperatures rose by 0.26 degrees Celsius (0.47 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade during that same time frame, The Hill summarized.

The investigators found that 9.4% of global deaths per year could be due to very hot and very cold temperatures. Most of the data they analyzed had to do with cold-related deaths, but the mortality rate resulting from heat-related causes rose by 0.21% over the course of the study.

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The scientists also found geographical differences in temperature-related mortality rates: Asia suffered 2.1 million deaths per year, followed by 1.2 million in Africa and 835,000 in Europe.

The US reportedly experienced 173,000 such deaths in the decades analyzed.

One of the professors, Yuming Guo, said in a statement, "This is the first study to get a global overview of mortality due to non-optimal temperature conditions between 2000 and 2019, the hottest period since the Pre-Industrial era."

"Importantly, we used 43 countries’ baseline data across five continents with different climates, socioeconomic and demographic conditions and differing levels of infrastructure and public health services – so the study had a large and varied sample size, unlike previous studies," he added.

The findings are particularly alarming as the planet is only expected to get hotter and suffer more extreme weather conditions in the years to come.