"The crops have been hit with a double-edged sword," Spencer said. "It's bad enough that we're in a drought situation right now. It's even worse that the heat has been so high. The crops are like humans. The hotter it is, the more energy it has to expend. It loses moisture when it's hot. We need more rainfall, now."

The area's last significant rainfall came on June 20, which brought just over an inch and a half of rain, according to Tim Gingrich, Wakefield station National Weather Service meteorologist.

Since then, there were three days in June with .01 inches of rain.

While the heat will not fall below 32.2 degrees Celsius anytime soon, there is a 20% chance of precipitation Wednesday (July 7) evening through Friday (July 9) and a 40% chance of storms on Saturday (July 10).

"We're looking at high temperatures for the next few days, but we may have some isolated chances for showers or thunderstorms starting Wednesday and going through Friday," Gingrich said. "That's just the pattern that comes in from the ocean and moves from west to east. Chances are better on Saturday, which should bring in a cold front from the northwest."

The possibility of rain brought relief to Spencer, who said the rain could save the soy, cotton and peanut crops.

"The problem with the corn was that it's an earlier crop," Spencer said. "A few weeks ago, when it was silking and the ear was in formation, it needed water, and it didn't get any. The result is that the ear of the corn just won't develop."

The critical development period of soy, cotton and peanuts will come in a few weeks, according to Spencer.

"If we don't see rain in the next few weeks, we may experience more loss of crops," Spencer said. "But they haven't reached their critical development period yet. It's coming soon. If we don't get rain when the soy and peanuts start to develop their pods and the cotton starts to develop its bolls, we could see yield loss."