Hot areas include first appearance of rain in items for discussion (7)
I believe the answer is:
tropics
'hot areas' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both locations as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tropics that I've seen before include "Region either side of equator" , "hot spot" , "hot spots" , "Cancer, Capricorn" , "hot regions" .)