The dog days of Summer, their origin, and what you need to know before your weekend beach visit

The term "Dog days of Summer" traces its origin back to roman times.

Originally known in Latin as "dies caniculares," the day of the dog star.

As the seasons shifted, the star called Sirius, which was part of the constellation Alpha Canis Majoris that resembled a dog, became visible to the naked eye.

In Greek, "Sirius" can be roughly translated to "glowing" or "scorching."

During the daytime with Sirius in the sky, the Roman people and their dogs would suffer from what we now know as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

For Romans, that time of extreme heat was mid-June to early July, but a process called axial procession (informally known as Earth's wobble) over thousands of years shifted our dog days to sit in late July to early August for us.

In another ~10,000 years, the residents of Earth will be seeing the dog days of Winter.

For us now though, the dog days of Summer usually mean consistent days of seasonably warm weather and plenty of sunshine. 

However, Michiana is below average this year in its amount of 90 degree days, sitting at only 10 days of recorded temperatures in the 90s while the 30 year average is 13.5 days.

With the warmest months on average for our area behind us, the clock is ticking on getting more days of 90 degree days before the end of August.

To beat the heat, many in Michiana turn to the many beaches along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

With more storms on the way, swim risk increases throughout the weekend with wave heights expected to reach unsafe levels.

During times when storms bring in north or northwest flow, the lake can act as a runway for winds to pick up speed and crash into our shores due to little surface-based friction across the water.

The more north the flow, the longer runway provided to the wind to gain speed and eventually cause large waves along the southern portion of the lake.