BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture "Red Sky"

"Red skies before night, sailors delight." Early this evening as the Sun was setting there was a Red glow in the sky and the clouds were clearing. I think this event was heading North and if so, perhaps there may be some relief in store for our friends in the Northeast States.

We (south of Boston, MA) have had a lot of rain but no flooding. However, it would be nice to see the sun. Either the days are getting shorter (ya think??) or the sky is altogether too cloudy.

Sun is more reddish when there is more dust in the air - for instance after voulcano eruption.I am not sure exactly whether more turbulent atmosphere (more winds) affect redness of the sun.

Here is nice article about red sunsets:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html

Jaga. The whole phrase is: Red skys in the morning, sailors take warning, Red skys at night, sailors delight. The long explaination can be found with a Google search by inputting the 1st part of the phrase. A short explanation is. A reddish sky in the morning means there is a lot of water vapor in the sky. In the evening the reddish sky is produced by the Suns' rays reflecting off of retreating clouds. The Google search will produce a longer explanation but the phrase is always true.

Bob,

sure, you are right. I actually heard this proverb before and it makes sense. It just lead me to all these green shine etc...

In the Uk we have an alternative saying based on the one quoted, but instead of 'sailors' we substitute 'farmers' as they are equally susceptible to bad and good weather.
Bob, you say that the saying is 'always true' - it may be one of the vagaries of the forecsating in the British Isles, or the environment around where I live, but I have found occasions when it was far from true. BUT in the main it is a true forecast to some extent.
Leslie

Csesc Leslie. In general, the saying is true, HOWEVER there are a few caveats in any rule. The floor of the Chesapeake bay is littered with the bones of small craft whose owners fail to keep a weather eye out or failed to keep their radios tuned in to the latest weather reports.