A new study of Western US wildfires from 2001 to 2024 finds that heat waves, defined as at least three consecutive days in the hottest tenth of days, covered only 12 to 15 percent of warm-season days yet accounted for 42 percent of all burned area. Heat dries out vegetation and raises the air's demand for moisture, so fuels ignite more easily. Heat waves also limit night-time humidity, which lets fires keep burning through the night, and the hot, unstable air can produce dry lightning that starts fires without rain. Burned area each day was often more than 50 percent larger during heat waves than in the days just before them. Since 2001 heat wave days across Western forests have nearly doubled, and the researchers estimate forest burned area would have been 37 percent smaller without that increase. The effect was strong in forests but not in grasslands, where fuel availability matters more than heat.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.