Sweat Myths That Are Making Your Summer More Uncomfortable
Sweating Is Widely Misunderstood By mid-August, most people have spent weeks sweating through daily life, and along the way, a handful of persistent myths about sweat and heat loss have shaped how people respond to it—often in ways that don’t actually help and sometimes make things worse. Sweat is one of the body’s most important […]
Hurricane Harvey: When a Weakening Storm Became a Historic Flood
A Storm That Got More Dangerous After It Stopped Being a Hurricane Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, on August 25, 2017, as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, and by conventional measures, the most dangerous part of the story should have ended within a day or two of landfall, as the storm weakened and […]
What Months of Summer Sun Have Done to Your Roof
Your Roof Has Absorbed More Than You Realize By mid-August, your roof has spent months absorbing direct sun exposure, often reaching surface temperatures well above the surrounding air temperature on hot afternoons. That sustained heat and UV exposure takes a real toll on roofing materials, and late summer—after the worst of the heat but before […]
The Perseids Are Peaking: What Weather Conditions Actually Matter for Meteor Watching
One of the Year’s Best Meteor Showers Is Underway Mid-August brings the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, widely considered one of the most reliable and rewarding meteor showers of the year, capable of producing 50 to 100 visible meteors per hour under ideal conditions. While the shower itself is an astronomical event, whether you […]
Cooling Drinks and Infused Waters for the Hottest Days
Hydration Doesn’t Have to Be Boring Staying properly hydrated matters more in mid-August than almost any other point in the year, but plain water can feel like a chore to keep up with when temperatures are at their peak. These five drinks make hydration more appealing without loading up on sugar, offering refreshing options that […]
How Shorter Days Start Affecting Mood, Even This Early in Fall
A Shift That Begins Well Before Winter Seasonal mood changes are typically associated with the depths of winter, but the underlying physiological process actually begins much earlier, tracking the gradual daylight reduction that’s already well underway by mid-September. While the most pronounced seasonal mood effects tend to develop later in fall and winter, the biological […]
Ragweed Season Is Starting: What Late-Summer Allergy Sufferers Should Know
A Different Allergy Season Is Beginning While spring pollen season feels like a distant memory by mid-August, a second major allergy season is just getting underway. Ragweed, the primary driver of late-summer and fall seasonal allergies across most of the country, typically begins releasing pollen in mid-to-late August and continues through the first hard frost […]
Peak Flea and Tick Season: Protecting Pets Through Late Summer
Why August Is the Worst Month for Fleas and Ticks Flea and tick populations follow a predictable seasonal pattern, and by early-to-mid August, they’re typically at or near their yearly peak across most of the country. These parasites thrive in warm, humid conditions, and after months of accumulating summer heat, their reproductive cycles have had […]
Can Animals Really Predict the Weather? Sorting Folklore From Fact
Weather Folklore Has Deep Roots Long before radar and forecast models, people looked to the natural world for clues about what weather was coming, and much of that folklore centered on animal behavior. Some of these beliefs have persisted for centuries and remain widely repeated today. A few have a kernel of genuine biological truth […]
Hurricane Katrina: How a Storm Became a Catastrophe of Human Engineering
A Storm Whose Damage Came Largely After Landfall Hurricane Katrina made landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border on the morning of August 29, 2005, as a large and powerful Category 3 hurricane. By meteorological measures alone, Katrina was significant but not unprecedented—several hurricanes in U.S. history have made landfall with comparable or greater wind intensity. What […]