The ancient Romans considered the hottest days of summer to be when the dog star Sirius appeared in the sky. Today, that would be primarily in August. This strikes us in the Western Hemisphere as very odd, since August is the month that our summer starts waning. For the ancient Romans, the dog days of summer occurred from about July 24 to around August 24. -- Wonderopolis To us in the United States, the hottest days of summer would usually be July. The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional timing of the dog days of summer as being July 3 until August 11. -- Wonderopolis The explanation for this difference in ancient and modern timing is that the dog star Sirius has drifted in the night sky over the millennia; but there is more this than meets the eye to this -- and it involves more than constellational drift. Here, in the Western Hemisphere, July is the scorcher in our calendar year; and that is what we would expect. July is the height of summer with...(Read Full Article)