Overview

• Summer’s traditional Dog Days (July 23–August 23) have opened with showers, thunderstorms and localized heavy rain rather than a prolonged heat wave.
• Meteorologists warn that ongoing downpours could trigger flooding in vulnerable areas, recalling the catastrophic Ahrtal floods of July 2021.
• This summer’s peak temperature of 39.3 °C recorded on July 2 in Andernach is unlikely to be surpassed in the current unsettled pattern.
• Latest model projections suggest a cool, wet spell may extend into early August, disrupting earlier forecasts of record-breaking heat.
• The term Hundstage derives from the ancient association of Sirius’s heliacal rising with Canis Major, a purely astronomical event unrelated to actual summer temperatures.