This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As record-breaking heatwaves continue across parts of the United States, a new report shows that heat-related deaths in the country rose by 117 percent between 1999 and 2023. The report, released on Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that from 1999 to 2023, there have been more than 21,500 heat-related deaths recorded in the US. The researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also found that 1,069 deaths were heat-related in 1999, compared with 2,325 in 2023—representing a 117 percent increase. “As temperatures continue to rise because of climate change, the recent increasing trend is likely to continue.” The lowest number of heat-related deaths in the study period was 311 in 2004, the researchers said, whereas the highest was 2,325 in 2023. Before 2016, the researchers said that the number of heat-related deaths showed “year-to-year variability,” with spikes in 2006 and 2011.