Sun dog

[mmcirvin]

This WaPo article about the decline of distinctive Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore dialects mentions "sun dog" as a St. George Island dialect term meaning "a haze that portended bad weather, a sign it was time to leave the kitchen [another dialect term referring to a place rich in oysters] and head home."

"They don't know about sun dogs anymore," said Jack Russell, a native of the area. "Half of them don't even know that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west."

But is "sun dog" a distinctive local term for the haze itself, or does it refer to the atmospheric halo spot created by high-altitude cirrus, which is called a sun dog or sundog by just about everyone who talks about them in English? It sounds as if Russell is just complaining that the newcomers don't know their weather lore or look at the sky.