I once heard someone say that teachers coined the phrase "The Dog Days of Summer" because they all got to lay around like dogs and do nothing during the hottest part of the year -- like dogs get to do every day of the year. 

Of course, that's not true, but do you know where the phrase really came from?

We usually think of summer as that time between Memorial Day at the end of May and Labor Day in the beginning of September.  Officially, that's not really the case though.

Meteorological summer runs from June 1st through August 31st -- typically the hottest 3-month period of the year.  Traditionally, however, we use the astronomical definition of our seasons. 

So here's more about "the first day of summer"... and for that matter, "the first day of winter".  We'll try to make sense of what's going on during summer solstice and winter solstice.

Trying to understand a hurricane is tough for even the most seasoned meteorologists. 

That makes big storms like hurricanes really tough to explain to kids. 

Here are some great websites which help do just that...

Why is that rain cloud so dark? 

That's one of the most common questions I hear when making weather presentations. 

It is also one of the simplest to answer. 

Read on!

When an ice cube melts in Greenland, it's the lead story on the evening news because it was caused by human-induced global warming. When a polar bear hibernates 50 yards farther north than last year, we're told by news commentators it is because not enough people have purchased hybrid vehicles. When a tornado hits the deep south in February, certain scientists tell us on cable tv it is because the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But when a large group of internationally acclaimed scientists get together to discuss the shortcomings of the IPCC's report on climate change, they are absolutely ignored by the national media.

From the ground, it just looks cloudy. But as you go up in an airplane, you see the makeup of the atmosphere is much more complex, with several layers of clouds making up the overcast we see from our backyard. If you know how to read the Skew-T weather map, you can figure out exactly how high those clouds are, layer by layer!

For some, knowing how much rain fell in the backyard is just a matter of curiosity. For others, it is essential to their day to day lives.

Whether you are a weekend weather warrior, or someone whose makes a living based on rain which does or does fall, there is a rain gauge out there for you to measure the rainfall just like the pros.