A recent study by researchers from South Korea and Australia found a concerning trend: global heat waves are increasingly triggering more damaging droughts. Heat-first droughts, where heat waves precede dry conditions, have significantly risen from affecting about 2.5% of Earth's land annually in the 1980s to 16.7% by 2023. These events often become 'flash droughts'—sudden, severe dry spells that devastate agriculture and water resources, leaving communities and farmers unprepared.