Question: Do sun dogs occur at a certain time of day, year, temperature?

Answer: Sun dogs, more technically known as parhelia, are bright rainbow-colored orbs or bands seen about 22 degrees either side of the sun when it is fairly low in the sky and when there are fairly thin clouds composed of ice crystals that include a significant fraction with plate-like hexagonal shapes oriented parallel to the ground. They are fairly common, without much regard to temperatures or time of year, but are definitely tied to the time of day. They are brightest and most noticeable when the sun is less than about a 25 degree angle above the horizon, although fainter sun dogs displaced farther upward and outward from the sun can occasionally be seen for sun angles as great as 40-50 degrees. Thus, most sun dogs are noticed within an hour or two after sunrise or before sunset.