We are technically in a white area of the map in Indiana, but you wouldn’t know it looking around. We’re in a similar boat. Annuals we planted this year are starting to really show stress and die off. Even the young persimmons (native to the area and planted as transplants last year) are showing obvious stress. The tougher, more creative, and/or better suited plants are hanging on.
I’m also not doing much about it. The favas I planted around August 10th before the heat wave got some water today. They had to endure enough as it was. It’s really interesting to see how different plants are trying to figure things out. It’s also been interesting to see powdery mildew sweep through the squash with things being so dry - - I take it to mean they already had it, they just weren’t showing symptoms until the drought stress hit. If I remember right I saw this last year as well (edit: this week I learned from this forum that hot and dry are the conditions powdery mildew likes.)
We are significantly below our average rainfall for the past month. It’s been useful to see what was able to get started without intervention during this dry spell by only dry broadcasting before a light rain and then cooking along with the neighboring ground cover. Rye, radish, vetch, lettuce, and soybean (destined to be cover) have managed for me, while peas sown at the same time appear to have said no way. Just a few lettuce or soybean plants - - the lettuce seedlings may or may not have crossed with wild.
I guess the point is about the weather - - it’s been really dry. Trying to take it as an opportunity. I plan to let the plants largely continue to figure it out and to do some planting soon, without apparent rain in the next days. If anything wants to go ahead and come up ahead of the next rain, the way I see it, it either really wants to be there and/or something else really wants it there.