Wow, it’s sure hot and muggy. That’s because we’re in the Dog Days of Summer, the hottest, muggiest days of the year. As the song goes “roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer”. If you are feeling the effects of hot, muggy, sultry, “weather that you can wear”, you can be certain that you are in the Dog Days of Summer. It is also a period of drought and occasional strong thunderstorms.
When is the Dog Days of Summer?
The phrase “Dog Days” conjures up the hottest, most sultry days of summer. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional timing of the Dog Days: the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. The rising of Sirius does not actually affect the weather (some of our hottest and most humid days occur after August 11), but for the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile’s flooding, so they used the star as a “watchdog” for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time: “Dog Days bright and clear / indicate a happy year. / But when accompanied by rain, / for better times our hopes are vain.”
When the Dog Days of Summer arrive, it’s time to do those memorable summer time activities, that help us to keep our cool. They include:
Whatever your favorite pastime for the Dog Days of Summer, we do not believe it should be spent indoors all day long, in air conditioned comfort. Rather, get out and enjoy the hot weather while it is here. After all, the days are already growing shorter, and you know what that ultimately leads to…
One good thing about the weather here in Utah is that it never gets muggy. It does get hot, though, but today and yesterday aren’t two of those days. The 4th of July here was downright chilly, as in jacket weather. It’s been a weird weather year. We’ve still got quite a bit of snow in the Wasatch Mountains east of town. Looking across the valley to the west, there’s still some snow in the Oquirrh Mountains west of town too. I don’t ever remember seeing that this far into the summer season.
Was out in the garden all day yesterday though hot and muggy. Didn’t even go fishing (all the drunk yahoos on the lake anyway.)
It’s been a cold wet spring. Now everything is all covered with lush green growth as we head into hot, parched July/August. Gonna be wishing for some of that rain in a week or two.
B, is that snow in the mountains supposed to be drinking water? Bad when it doesn’t snow. Just as bad if it doesn’t melt?
“Hot Summer” and “Happy” do not belong in the same sentence. Here in Toronto if I could live in my fridge I would. People say I must relax myself. How can I be agitated and relax myself at the same time I’d never know.
The climate here is peculiar and sort of all over the place depending on elevation.
Utah is a dry desert punctuated with green, forested mountain ranges that get lots of precipitation. The cities are mostly all in the dry valleys at the base of the mountains. If not for the mountains, there would be no water here and very few cities.
When it doesn’t snow much in the winter, we’re hurting for water during the next summer. When it snows a lot in those mountains (like this last winter), the reservoirs fill up and we have enough water to make it until fall when the cycle starts all over again.
Most of the time, all the mountain snow has melted by now, but not this year. Even so, most of it has melted and the reservoirs are full, which is good.
I like the green, forested part, but not so much all the brown.
I’ve visited the Phoenix, AZ area many times to see friends, but by the end of a week there, I can’t wait to get out of the sand and back to the green.
It was a great weekend. I took Friday off and didn’t have to work or even think about work for four straight days – that’s pretty rare for me.
Summer weather finally arrived in the Midwest. It is hot and humid. I got bike rides in on Thursday and Saturday and am convinced it takes extra energy to cut through the air when it’s thick and humid.
