Indian Summer

As most of you (in the UK at least) have noticed, it’s pretty warm outside with temperatures hitting 30°C (86F). This unseasonable weather is quite often referred to as an Indian Summer, which got me to thinking, what the Hell is an Indian Summer? So I did a little bit of internet detective work.

It seems the Indian that we are referring to are American Indians, though the phrase is actually quite complicated. It seems the first usage of the word was by a French/American John Hector St. John who said "Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer."

In Britain, an Indian Summer used to be referred to as Saint Martin's Summer, which is attributed with Saint Martin of Tours, whose corpse sailed down the river Loire towards Tours, and legend has it that the river banks flowered as his corpse passed by.

In the Southern states, an Indian Summer is more commonly known as Dog days, which is a direct reference to the star Sirius (also known as the Dog Star) and how it was believed that when it passed close to the sun, in the sky it would cause hot weather.

Either way, whether you’re interested in Etymology or not, it is really warm outside at the moment, so enjoy it while you can!

Thanks to Wikipedia and BBC for the above information.