Cold Snaps Line Up With Cardiac Arrest Spikes, New Study Finds
By StudyFinds Analysis
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Reviewed by Patrisha Antonaros
Research led by Endre Zima (Semmelweis University)
Sep 16, 2026
In a Nutshell
On the days with the most cardiac arrests, counts ran nearly a third above normal, about 19 extra cases nationwide, and those days tended to be cold and calm.
Colder temperatures and lower wind speeds were consistently associated with higher cardiac arrest counts, with weather patterns extending across a window of up to three days.
Winter months saw almost 18% more cardiac arrests than summer months, a pattern confirmed by both traditional statistics and machine learning.
On the days when cardiac arrests outside hospitals ran highest, counts climbed nearly a third above a typical day, an extra 19 or so nationwide, and those days shared a common signature: cold, still air. That’s the central finding from a five-year study that tracked every out-of-hospital cardiac arrest recorded by Hungary’s national ambulance service, the kind of sudden, deadly event where a person’s heart stops and paramedics race against the clock to save them.
https://studyfinds.com/cold-snaps-line-up-with-cardiac-arrest-spikes-new-study-finds/
