Hot, hot, hot - or not?
Yes, hot days mean that some dogs just lie around panting, as it is too hot for their liking. But is that enough to single them out and call those days "dog days"? Well, as so often the original meaning has become somewhat lost in time. To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius, the dog star, appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year. In the ancient Greek constellation system, this star (called Seirios in Greek) was considered the hound of the hunter Orion and was given the epithet Kyon, meaning "dog." The Greek writer Plutarch referred to the hot days of summer as hēmerai kynades (literally, "dog days"), and a Latin translation of this expression as dies caniculares is the source of the English phrase.
Now that we are close to the dog days - is it justified this year? In all honesty the weather has gone all April on us, treating us to such fun as different types of weather in a day - from rain, sunshine, hail to storms. It has been quite a wild summer so far. So we decided to depict those turmoils in a cute little visual. because we just love data. and making the best of weird weather.
