On a grassy expanse at the largest monastic ruins in Britain, a dry scar emerged just days ago in the earth. And at a historic home and ancient priory more than 200 miles to the southwest, patches of brown became visible through grass, as if the ground was trying to recall a half-forgotten memory.

But these patches are not paths, past or present. Instead, the lines recall ancient buildings, whose old foundations form these “parchmarks,” which emerge in dry periods when the grass growing over buried ruins dries at a different rate than in other areas.

“It’s almost like a photograph within the landscape itself,” said Chris Gosden, an emeritus professor of European archaeology at the University of Oxford.

These parchmarks, which lace across grass like veins on a forearm, have appeared in two British historical sites in recent days, the National Trust, which manages the sites, said on Thursday.

They appeared after Britain endured one of its driest springs on record, and are a sign of how the climate crisis is affecting the region. The frequency with which the parchmarks are visible has “noticeably increased” in recent years, as “climate change increases the likelihood of hotter, drier weather in spring and summer,” Tom Dommett, the National Trust’s head of historic environment, said in a statement.

The marks are one sign of how climate change is radically affecting the landscape around the world and, in some cases, revealing hidden history.