40 Offbeat Things Southerners Say When It’s Hot Out

In the South of the United States, where the sun seems to have a love affair with the land, residents have developed a colorful and humorous vernacular to describe the often sweltering weather. From the charmingly quirky to the downright hilarious, these phrases paint a vivid picture of how hot it can get when the mercury rises in the Southern States.

Prepare to be amused and entertained as we embark on a linguistic journey through the South’s unique way of expressing its summer heat. Whether you’re a native Southerner looking for a laugh or an outsider curious about the region’s rich language, this collection of phrases is sure to tickle your funny bone and perhaps even add a few new expressions to your vocabulary. So, grab a glass of sweet tea, find a spot in the shade, and let’s dive in, y’all!

Time-Tested Southern Sayings When It's Hot

• Is it hot enough for ya?
• It must be 90 in the shade.

Classic Southern Sayings You'll Hear When It's Hot

• You could fry an egg on the sidewalk.
• You could fry an egg on the hood of that car.

These Sayings Never Get Old in the South

• Crank up that A.C. until it's blowing snowballs.
• Man, it's hot as all get-out!

Traditional Southern Sayings When the Sweat's Rolling

• How many days until fall?
• This one's gonna be a scorcher.

Quintessential Southern Sayings in the Dead of Summer

• It's not the heat—it's the humidity.
• It’s not a dry heat, that kind of heat is better. This is a wet heat. 

Southerners Say It's Hotter Than...

• It's hotter'n a blister bug in a pepper patch.
• It's hotter'n blue blazes.

Southerners Love Comparing Heat to...

• It's hotter than noon on the fourth of July.
• It's so dang hot that I just saw a hound dog chasing a rabbit—and they were both walking.

More Hot Comparisons in the South

• It's hotter than a $2 pistol
• Hotter than Georgia asphalt.

The Only Place Hotter Than the South

• Hotter than H-E double hockey sticks.
• Hot as H-E double toothpicks.

Yes, Southerners Really Say This

• Hot as Hades.
• Hotter than the devil’s armpit.

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If You Can Survive a Summer in the Deep South, You Can Make it Anywhere

• Hot as the hinges on the gates of Hades.
• Hotter than hell’s pepper patch.

They're Probably Not Wrong

• Hotter than Satan's house cat.
• Even Satan's sweatin' today.

The Heat Can Make Your Thoughts Go to Dark Places

• Hotter than hell and half of Georgia.
• Hotter than six shades of hell.

How Hot Is It?

• It's so hot the ice cream truck melted.
• It's like a steam bath out here.

You'll Hear These Southern Expressions On Countless Porches in the Summer

• It's like walking through soup out here.
• It’s like a sauna/steam room out there.  

It Gets Hot in the South and Complaining Helps

• It's so hot the swimming pool is boiling.
• It's so hot my sweat has sweat.

Southern Reactions to the Heat

• I'm wilting.
• I'm burning slap up.

How Southerners Express How They Feel

• I'm sweatin' like a hog.
• I’m sweating bullets. 

It's All in How You Frame It

• Good Lord, I'm dying out here!
• This heat makes me tired.

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Final Southern Phrases That Remark on Heat

• Somebody fan me.
• If it gets any hotter, I'll have to take off stuff I really ought to keep on.

As we wrap up our journey through the South's humorous heat descriptors, it's clear that Southerners have a way with words. These colorful expressions offer a glimpse into the region's unique culture and charm and serve as a testament to the resilience and humor of its people in the face of sweltering heat. Whether you're a Southerner or just a fan of the region's expressive vocabulary, we hope these phrases made you smile.

For even more content that shines like the sun, keep reading. We've got our favorite quotes about summer to share with you!

Discover the Most Refreshing Summer Quotes Ever Below!

Oprah Winfrey

"Summer has a flavor like no other. Always fresh and simmered in sunshine."

John Steinbeck

"In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explode, and every sunset is different."

Nat King Cole

"Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer."

Henry James

"Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

Robert Bridges

"I know that if odor were visible, as color is, I’d see the summer garden in rainbow clouds."

Margaret Atwood

"In the summer I was a wild child in the woods, with no shoes, and in the fall it was back to the city, shoe shops and school."

Gary Shteyngart

"We know summer is the height of being alive."

Wilma Rudolph

"When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble is too difficult to overcome."

K.D. Lang

"Sweet, sweet burn of sun and summer wind, and you, my friend, my new fun thing, my summer fling."

Sarah Dessen

"In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible."

Pablo Neruda

"Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink in the wild air."

L.M. Montgomery

"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June."

Evelyn Waugh

"If it could only be like this always—always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe."

Jeannette Walls

"One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by."

Langston Hughes

"Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you."

John Lubbock

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."

Al Bernstein

"Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June."

John Steinbeck

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?"

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Regina Brett

"Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds."

Katie Lee

"The grill is the summer equivalent of a fireplace; everyone gravitates to it."

Kellie Elmore

"Some of the best memories are made in flip-flops."

Katie Lee

"If summer had one defining scent, it’d definitely be the smell of barbecue." —Katie Lee

Emily Dickinson

"To see the summer sky is poetry, though never in a book it lie—true poems flee."

Jenny Han

"Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August."

Robert Orben

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in."

Maud Hart Lovelace

"It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside."

William Shakespeare

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Wallace Stevens

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought."

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Helen Keller

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows."

There you have them, the best summer quotes ever. For those of us who live for the warm days, there never seems to be enough of them each year. The summer quotes bottle up the sun-kissed days we all cherish so much. Summer, forever!