What are the dog days of summer?
Meteorologist Josh Fitzpatrick explains what it means.
In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.
The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky during January.
In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.
The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, dog days occur during the period between July 3 and August 11. Although it is certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat is not due to the added radiation from a far-away star, regardless of its brightness. No, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt.
Do me a favor. To make this more interesting, take a photo of your dog and e-mail them to me at josh.fitzpatrick@wsaz.com and I may use them in a future blog or on the air since it's the "dog days of summer!"
Be sure to join my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Josh-Fitzpatrick-fan-page/362878134573
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/weatherjoshfitz
Keep those great questions coming and post your comments below.
Most Active Blogs
Blog RSS Feeds
First Warning Hour-By-Hour Forecasts
|
Popular Searches Powered by Local.com |
WSAZ.com Sponsor Sections & Links
