Sun dogs, a winter joy Herman Lensing column

from Country Acres - January 21, 2023

by Star Publications

Buferd the bucolic beast

PHOTOS BY HERMAN LENSING Ice crystals blowing through sunlight created a sun dog display Dec. 26, looking southeast from near Greenwald, Minn. The parhelion display lasted until about 10 a.m.

Howard Marthaler 320-250-2984

Established in 1975 Drainage LLC.

Jason Marthaler 320-249-6062 Karl Larson 320-808-8012

Ditching • Tiling Excavating Ag Waste Systems

Karl, Howard and Jason have workexperience of OVER a combined 90 YEARS!

“FARM DRAINAGE SPECIALISTS”

The cold, blowing, snowy weather just before Christmas, 2022, in central Minnesota had some up sides.

The area had a chance to see early morning sun dogs. These atmospheric apparitions usually occur in winter. They are memorable because they are not daily occurrences – and they have the tradition of being predictors of something.

When the temperature, water particles and wind are just right, those living in the country can catch good views of sun dogs.

Sun dogs are one of the gifts from nature which are better appreciated the less one knows about the reason for them. They only occur when small bits of moisture (in this area, generally ice crystals) are blown though sunlight, causing rainbow-like arcs on either side of the sun or sometimes encircling the sun.

While sun dogs, like rainbows, are refractions of light, there is meteorologically a bit of difference. Rainbows indicate rain has passed or will soon end. Sun dogs are traditionally seen as signs of wet weather coming.

The sun dogs can be quite dazzling and throughout history have baffl ed, impressed and/or bothered people. A bit of research shows they don’t necessarily have to be associated with Arctic-like temperatures. They can be seen anywhere in the world, in any month, if the conditions are right. In this locale though, that usually means in the winter.

Different cultures have different names for the objects. In ancient Greece they are named parhelions, meaning “with the sun.” That is understandable – although a bright moon can also create the phenomenon. They were, even then, said to be predictors of wet weather.

Other references to them are “mock suns” or “false suns.” That is sort of understandable.

In Northern Europe and most of North America they are called sun dogs. Just how the name dog came to be associated with them is debated. One theory is that it is an adaptation of

the rarely used variant verb “dog”, meaning to pester and bother. In short, the objects were seen as tracking and trying to trap the sun. Another explanation is the name was adapted by English speakers in the A Peek at the Past by Herman Lensing Middle Ages from the Scandinavian word “dag.” The word is associated with dew or mist, possibly because misty conditions with the right sun can create similar objects in the sky. Some Northern European people told of wolves, sometimes called dogs, hounding or tracking the sun to devour it. Throughout history, sun dogs have also been seen as portents of one kind or another. Their use as a predictor of something made it into Williams Shakespeare’s “Henry VI-Part 3,” when Edward of York says, “Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun; Not separated with the racking clouds, But sever’d in a pale clear-shining sky. See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss, As if they vow’d some league inviolable: Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun. In this the heaven fi gures some event.” It is doubtful that is exactly what he said, but it is known that before the 1461 Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, Edward did convince his followers that the three suns, two of which are said to be sun dogs, were a sign they would win. Not everyone has interpreted seeing sun dogs in such a positive manner. In the 1870s on the plains in North America, John Bourke (1846-1896) , during a campaign against the Cheyenne nation, reported seeing sun dogs and recorded that local lore said they were a harbinger of a blizzard.Just how accurate sun dogs are in predictions of wet weather is not stated anywhere, but whether they are or are not accurate, sun dogs are seen as something unique, and beautiful, in the sky. They are another example of why we like living on acres in the country.

“We are in the land improvement business. We do farm drainage, ag waste systems, site work for farm buildings and silage pads, plus miscellaneous work. We also do county, township, and watershed work, as well as soil conservation work.” - MBC Drainage, Sauk Centre