Dog days: A shot at 90 degrees

Welcome to the dog days of summer.

Well, technically they may have already peaked in late July and early August. At least according to the definition the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used as the Dog Star Sirius rose in the sky just before the sun.

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The ancients believed the bright start added to the heat of the sun, marking the hottest days of the year.

The dog days have also been used to describe the hottest days of summer in the U.S. Here's more on the evolving definitions and meaning of dog days from National Geographic.

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The “dog days,” I always thought, were those summer days so devastatingly hot that even dogs would lie around on the asphalt, panting.

Many people today use the phrase to mean something like that—but originally, the phrase actually had nothing to do with dogs, or even with the lazy days of summer. Instead, it turns out, the dog days refer to the dog star, Sirius, and its position in the heavens.

To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe.

“If you go back even as far as Homer, The Iliad, it’s referring to Sirius as Orion’s dog rising, and it describes the star as being associated with war and disaster,” said Jay B. Holberg, author of Sirius: Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky and senior research scientist at the University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory. “All throughout Greek and Roman literature, you found these things.”

The phrase “dog days” was translated from Latin to English about 500 years ago. Since then, it has taken on new meanings.

“Now people come up with other explanations for why they’re called the ‘dog days’ of summer, [like] this is when dogs can go crazy,” said Anne Curzan, an English professor at the University of Michigan.

“This is a very human tendency,” she said. When we don’t know the origin of a phrase, we come up with a plausible explanation.

“The meaning has been lost,” said Holberg, “but the phrase has lived on.”

A shot at 90

We make several runs at 90 degrees in the Twin Cities and most of southern Minnesota through Saturday. You'll notice the humidity climbing today as southwest winds build on the backside of departing high pressure.

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NOAA

A stray thunderstorm can't be ruled out over the Red River Valley and the northern half of Minnesota today. There is a slight risk of severe storms packing high winds and hail in the northland.

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NOAA

Air conditioning units buzz the next few days as temps make a run at 90. The hottest sustained stretch of summer so far? It looks that way. Relief arrives next week as temperatures appear to head toward the 70s.

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Weatherspark - Euro output

The warm spell will boost average temps for August so far. Here's a look at the running totals for August so far from the Twin Cities National Weather Service.

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Perseids peak tonight

I saw five meteors streak across the dark sky early this morning in about 10 minutes. That rate could double tonight as the annual Perseid meteor shower peaks after midnight.