The “horse latitudes” consist of regions around the equator where the sea is often becalmed and sailors sweat it out without even the slightest breeze. They are so named because, dying of thirst, sailors threw horses overboard to conserve water. Or so the story goes.
The “dog days of summer” don’t limit themselves to one spot on the globe; they occur almost everywhere. Even in Alaska, temperatures can reach 90 degrees, and in Siberia, it can get almost that hot. In the northern hemisphere, the worst of the heat is in July and August. And the “dog days” can kill their namesakes, even if the origin of the phase doesn’t have anything to do with that awful outcome.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, “This period of sweltering weather coincides with the year’s heliacal (meaning ‘at sunrise’) rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Majoris—the ‘Greater Dog’—which is where Sirius gets its canine nickname.” It notes, “In ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome, it was believed that the dawn rising of Sirius in mid-to-late summer contributed to the extreme weather of the season. In other words, the ‘combined heat’ of super-bright Sirius and our Sun was thought to be the cause of summer’s sweltering temperatures. The name ‘Sirius’ even stems from Ancient Greek seírios, meaning ‘scorching.’”
