What are the 'dog days' of summer?
The nickname has nothing to do with pets or puppies but stars. Sweltering heat accompanies the appearance of the star Sirius, the "Dog Star" in the Canis Major constellation each summer. By the technical ancient Egyptian interpretation, the 'dog days' of summer are over by mid-August.
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Hot and humid weather sears the nation every July and August during the warmest time of the year, but why is this time of year called the "dog days" of summer?
The ancient Egyptians actually coined the phrase thousands of years ago, when they reigned in northeastern Africa for almost 30 centuries between 3100 and 332 B.C., according to History.com.
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The constellation Canis Major contains a star called Sirius – also known as the "Dog Star" – and it's only visible in the Northern Hemisphere sky for 40 days each year between July 3 and Aug. 11, or the middle of summer.
It turns out that the ancient Egyptians thought unusually hot weather was directly related to the appearance of the Dog Star.
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Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, is the brightest star in the sky (other than our own sun) in the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
(NASA Night Sky Network)
Most people consider the entire month of August to be the dog days of summer since hot weather can be persistent through the month's end, though by the technical ancient Egyptian interpretation, the dog days are actually over by mid-August.
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We now know this isn't true, but the ancient Egyptians believed the sun's energy combined with the energy from Sirius and resulted in excessively hot temperatures.
The Dog Star is the brightest star in the sky (other than our own sun), though Sirius is 546,000 times farther from the Earth than the Sun, so the amount of radiation we receive from it has no effect on the planet's temperatures.
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This means the Dog Star actually has nothing to do with hot temperatures in July or August. It's simply an ancient phrase from the Egyptians that has survived for thousands of years that's used to describe uncomfortably hot weather.