Dogs days are here for now

In case you could not tell, we are currently in the middle of the historic “dog days of summer.”

I’m sure it was easy to miss. I can never understand why I start sweating the moment I walk outside or why my water bottle is empty in almost seconds because I need hydration.

The important thing to remember about the dog days of summer is to stay cool. There are a number of ways to do so. In fact, we’ve mentioned a few in this week’s paper.

I don’t want to dwell on what to do during the dog days of summer. We all live in Alabama where those days seem to last 355 days out of the year.

Those other days are the only ones where the temperature drops below 70.

We all know what to do, or will figure it out, so I wanted to share some new information I recently learned about this time of the year.

I was reading about these dog days, and I learned that these days are not, in fact, named so because dogs lie down in the heat of the day.

Apparently, this season was named after the stars.

According to a National Geographic article, Greeks and Romans charted the movement of Sirius, the Dog Star, in relation to the sun.

The article states that dog days began “around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July.”

This article further states that the term “dog days” was only recently translated to English. Recently meaning within the last 500-600 years.

This time was recognized, even then, as the hottest time of the year.

However, just because it feels like the sun is literally living in our backyard around this time, that doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone.

“Although July and August are generally known as the hottest months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the hottest period can vary from year to year,” the article states. “And depending on your latitude, the astronomical dog days can come at different times.”

It also doesn’t help that the stars and Earth’s sky never match up the same way every time.

The article states, “the stars in Earth’s night sky shift independently of our calendar seasons.”

Because of this movement, in a few thousand years, the dog days of summer won’t even happen during the summer, but actually during those 10 cooler days of the year.

Imagine how much fun Thanksgiving and Christmas will be then.

Cassie Gibbs is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].