The State Climate Office of North Carolina has produced a short article describing the “dog days” of summer. According to the blog, “it turns out the dog days are more than just a linguistic turn of phrase. They are a distinct time of year ranging from July 3rd to August 11th (40 days) and correspond to when the star Sirius (aka: the Dog Star, part of the Canis Major constellation) rises with the sun.”
In the article, the authors compare the hottest and most humid 40 day period in North Carolina to the astronomical “dog days” period. For most of the state, the climatological dog days occur earlier than the astronomical dog days.
You can read the article at https://nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=142&h=5666e5c1.