Well, we are right in the thick of it. From scorching afternoons to midday rains there's no way around it - we are in the "dog days of summer."

This is a popular phrase used when talking about the hottest days of the year. Technically, the dog days of summer, according to the Farmers' Almanac, are the days between July 3 and August 11.

When thinking about this, I usually picture a lazy, panting dog lying outside on a porch. However, this term is ancient and celestial. This time of year is when Sirus, the brightest star visible from earth, occupies the same region as the sun. Sirus is part of the constellation Canis Major, which means the Greater Dog.

And voila! A phrase is born.

Every country has their own variation of slang to refer to how hot it is during these days. Based on the 24 Chinese Solar Terms, which were created by ancient farmers in China as a guide for farming activities, we are entering the Major Heat term and will remain there until August 23 when the Start of Autumn begins.

There are also other Chinese terms that describe the hot weather such as yányán xià rì, which means "hot, hot summer."

This got me thinking about other terms or sayings people use when it gets too hot to handle out there.

This year, Beijing has dubbed the stretches of hot weather as "barbeque mode," which also echoes sayings used by people all over the world.

When I asked many of my international friends what kind of phrases they use to describe the hottest days of summer, many of them said a variation of "it's so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk," or "it's like a sauna out there."

Other sayings are it's frying, roasting or scorching, all of which make perfect sense to anyone who has gone out over the past few weeks! A few other interesting terms I heard included one from Australia where they say "it's hotter than a shearer's armpit," and "it's so hot you have to feed the chooks (chickens) ice blocks so they don't lay hard-boiled eggs."

In the UK they also say "the sun is cracking the flags," which means that it is so hot that it might crack the stones holding the flag poles.

Hot, humid summer days are upon us, and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. All we can do is try to keep ourselves from getting fried.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.