Dog days may heat up before settling down

We are in the middle of what many people call the dog days of summer. A lot of people enjoy the hot and dry days. Despite the occasional thunder and dust storms, our weather changes very little from day to day.

“Dog days of summer” actually has its origin in astronomy. The ancient Romans considered the period from July 23 to Aug. 23 to be the “dog days,” associating the hot weather with the star Sirius, whose ascent during this period appeared to coincide with sunrise.

Sirius often is called the dog star, because it’s the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, which means “large dog.” Back in those days, the Romans would sacrifice a brown dog to appease the rage of the god Sirius, because the hot weather he was thought to bring caused crops to ripen prematurely.

We’re now into August, typically the warmest and driest month in the Inland Northwest. The average high temperature is 82.6 degrees, with a normal low temperature of 68.6. The region, on average, receives 0.68 inches of rain in August.

July started out on the cool side. The mean temperature for the first six days of the month was nearly 8 degrees below normal. But several warm days helped keep the first half of July’s average temperature to around 2 degrees below average levels.

The second half of July was considerably warmer in the Spokane region. The average reading was slightly over 3 degrees above normal. There were five days with temperatures at or above 90 degrees, with the hottest day observed on July 26. On that Monday, the mercury hit 95 degrees at the Spokane International Airport. There were six other days last month with highs at 88 or 89 degrees.

Although the last day of July was a bit wet (one-tenth of an inch of rain), total rainfall last month was only 0.36 inches. July’s normal rainfall at the airport is 0.76 inches. The wettest day for July was on the second, with 0.19 inches of rain measured.

We’ll likely see some scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms this month, but I see more 90-degree-plus temperatures returning, especially near the Aug. 24 full moon cycle. It’s still possible that we’ll see one or two afternoons soar to the century mark.