Buildings reflect heat onto trees, especially along southern and western walls. Heat reflected from the building has scorched the leaves of this linden. Sites near roads and parking lots are hot. When combined with the heat from car fumes and the temperature of asphalt and concrete, these sites can be lethal for trees. The foreground tree is dying because it is planted in a small volume of hot, dry soil in a parking lot.
Underground utilities can also create hot sites.
Soils around certain utilities, such as steam lines, can be significantly hotter than adjacent soils. Containers and raised beds become hotter than in-ground planting areas. Where soil is above ground level and uninsulated by surrounding soil, sites are subject to greater extremes of heat and cold. Open areas, such as fields and parks, are typically hotter than wooded areas where trees provide shade for each other and the surrounding soil. Leaf litter on the ground in wooded areas keeps the soil cooler, as does mulch in open, unshaded landscapes.