In the summertime, a single acre of corn in Iowa can sweat four thousand gallons a day—enough to fill a typical residential swimming pool in less than a week. This need for water is why, for crops like corn and soybeans, dry heat is much more damaging than wet heat—dry heat not only sucks the moisture out of the plants, but it is usually accompanied by lower rainfall, which dries out the soil that allows the crops to thrive.
