How hot and dry is it?

It's hot and drive enough to drive out a poor old hairy tail mole out into the open to look for some moisture.  Dad had watered the grass and some plants by the side of the house and garage and came and me to see "some creature in the grass".  I ran for the camera and then slipped up to it, literally got nose to nose with it as it worked its way through the wet grass.  It looked as if it were licking the grass, so I asked Dad to bring me some water.  He brought some in a plastic drinking glass, and I lay the glass in front of the mole.  The mole sniffed around and then headed straight for the water and drank its fill.  It then meandered around a bit as if disoriented, after a few minutes it acted more decisive in its movements and headed for the tall grasses and weeds and disappeared.

I'm wondering about the effects this drought will have on many of the shrews, chipmunks, mice and other small creatures of the forest.  The seed crop will no doubt be affected and the food supply will be limited for the winter.  Lack of mice and other rodents may affect the food chain on up.  Sometimes these little creatures are far more resilient than we realize, certainly in the case of mice, who are so prolific, their numbers can go from low to high in a short time.  They demonstrate this on a regular basis when invading my house.