If you find yourself reaching for a glass of wine more often when temperatures dip, you’re not alone. New research from the University of Pittsburgh found that where you live might shape just how much you drink. The study, which investigated the link between weather and alcohol intake, found that people living in colder areas with less sunlight tended to drink more alcohol than their warm-weather peers.
As temperatures sink and hours of sunlight diminish, alcohol consumption tends to rise. Colder climates were also linked to more episodes of binge drinking and higher prevalence of alcoholic liver disease. Annually, roughly 88,000 Americans die from alcohol-related causes, marking alcohol as the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States.