A top glacier watcher has warned that a warm early summer combined with a heat wave last week may have caused severe glacier melt in Switzerland, threatening to make 2023 its second-worst year for ice loss after a record thaw last year.

Matthias Huss of the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center said full data won't be in until late September and a precipitous drop in temperatures and high-altitude snowfall in recent days could help stem any more damage.

Greek firefighters rescued a group of 25 migrants trapped in a forest in northeastern Greece Friday as flames from a massive wildfire burning for two weeks approached, authorities said.

The fire department said the group became trapped in the forest between two villages in the Evros region, near the border with Turkey. No injuries were reported. There was no immediate information on their nationalities.

Greek authorities further reinforced firefighting forces in the country's northeast Thursday, where a massive blaze in its thirteenth day has flared up once more, triggering authorities to issue alerts to residents in the area to be on standby for possible evacuation.

More than 100 extra firefighters were deployed, bringing the total to 582, backed by a fleet of 10 planes and seven helicopters from nine European countries, the fire department said. The fire that started Aug. 19 has decimated homes and vast tracts of forest in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region, near Greece's border with Turkey. It has been blamed for 20 of last week's 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece.

Chinese state media report at least 121 passenger trains are suspending service in anticipation of the arrival of Typhoon Saola, while people in coastal areas of southern China were being warned to stay away from the coastline.

The suspensions on key lines running from north to south as well as on regional networks will begin Thursday and continue through Sept. 6, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Jeanette Kiokun, the tribal clerk for the Qutekcak Native Tribe in Alaska, doesn't immediately recognize the shriveled, brown plant she finds on the shore of the Salish Sea or others that were sunburned during the long, hot summer. But a fellow student at a weeklong tribal climate camp does.

They are rosehips, traditionally used in teas and baths by the Skokomish Indian Tribe in Washington state and other tribes.

Taiwan's weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island's southern coast on its way to China's southern coast.

The typhoon is moving northwest with sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) and gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon's eye won't hit Taiwan's mainland, but is expected to graze the island's southern cities with its outer bands.

Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Idalia intensified Monday and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges.

"You should be wrapping up your preparation for #TropicalStormIdalia tonight and Tues morning at the latest," the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A massive wildfire was burning unabated in northeastern Greece for the 11th day Tuesday despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters and a fleet of water-dropping aircraft.

After burning across vast tracts of land, the blaze in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region was mainly concentrated deep in a forest near the border with Turkey, in an area difficult to access. The wildfire has been blamed for 20 of the 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece last week.

The nightmare repeats itself every year: A towering wall of flames devours forests, farmland and homes, forcing animals and people to flee for their lives.

With their hot, dry summers, Greece and its southern European neighbors experience hundreds of devastating wildfires each year. Last week alone, wildfires killed 21 people in Greece. The country's deadliest, in 2018, cost more than 100 lives. And experts warn that climate change is likely to exacerbate extreme weather, fueling more wildfires.

Santos Brizuela spent more than two decades laboring outdoors, persisting despite a bout of heatstroke while cutting sugarcane in Mexico and chronic laryngitis from repeated exposure to the hot sun while on various other jobs.