“The Dog Days of Summer”

by Caleb, KE0FOE

Every summer we always hear mention of “The Dog Days of Summer”. This expression generally refers to the very hot, humid, and uncomfortable days of the summer, and it’s been around for a very long time. How long? Well, back to the days of the ancient Romans and ancient Greeks and their observations of Sirius – also known as the Dog Star.

It was very obvious to early astronomers that Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. As these Greek and Roman astronomers noted, the star Sirius rises and sets at around the same time as our sun during July and August. Given that Sirius is so bright at night, they concluded that whenever Sirius is in the sky during the daytime in conjunction with the Sun, then the unbearable hot days during these summer months must be caused by extra heat radiated by Sirius – The Dog Star. And, thus, these hot days of summer became known as The Dog Days of Summer.

Of course, we now know that summer heat has nothing to do with the star Sirius. Rather, summer is the result of our sun’s rays striking the Northern Hemisphere at a more direct angle.

For more interesting facts and folklore about the Dog Days of Summer, visit these links: Wikipedia, National Geographic, Farmers’ Almanac