Relief from heat needs to include rain

The cooler temperatures — all the way down into the 80s — promised for tomorrow will be welcome, but they won't fix the problem that is looming worse than the heat: a lack of rain. The weather radar the past couple of evenings has shown thick, rain-bearing clouds passing to the south of us but little or no rain falling here. A brief shower wet the leaves on trees and lawns but did nothing to replenish the soil.

On a trip through some of the remaining farmland in Wilson County today, I saw green fields of tobacco, corn, cotton and soybeans panting for rain. The local dams I have passed the last few days are not overflowing with water as they had been just weeks earlier, when a plenitude of water had soaked the soil and filled streams to overflowing through most of the spring. But this June we are bidding farewell to on Wednesday has been unseasonably hot not just for a day or two but for days and weeks on end. The "dog days" of summer are upon us already, more than a month too soon.

What these higher temperatures will mean for the summer and fall cannot be known, but many weather watchers are saying this month's heat and the resulting warmer ocean temperatures could mean a large number of especially strong hurricanes. These storms gain strength from warm water, and there seems to be plenty of that this year.

We are only a couple of years removed from one of the worst droughts in this state's memory. Rocky Mount's Tar River Reservoir dipped so low that Rocky Mount made a deal to buy water from Wilson. Raleigh, Durham and other cities began enforcing strict water usage rules. Atlanta's main reservoir turned into a mud puddle, causing near-panic in Georgia. That sort of crisis could return unless this hot, dry spell dissipates and we get some regular, soaking rains. At risk are gardens and lawns and the patience of gardeners who stand guard over their beloved plants but can't control the weather. July and August are usually hot, dry months. If this historical pattern continues this year, by September, we'll be deep in drought and, perhaps, hoping for a hurricane — just a little one — for relief.