Will you help me get information on a famous weather myth?

Question

The myth is:
Red sky at night, sailor's delight... Red sky in morning, sailors take warning!"

I need:
-Historical background on this myth
-explanations of the science and weather factors involved in the myth

Please be as descriptive as possible. Thanks! :)

Answer 1

Red sky at night; shepherds delight,
Red sky in the morning; shepherds warning

Sometimes the phrase involves sailors rather than shepherds - both have a more than usual interest in the weather.

The saying is very old and quite likely to have been passed on by word of mouth for some time before it was ever written down. There is a written version in Matthew XVI in the Wyclif Bible, from as early as 1395 loosly translated:
When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and louring.

There are many later citations of the saying in literature, including this from Shakespeare, in Venus & Adonis, 1593:

"Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd wreck to the seaman - sorrow to shepherds."

So, that's where it originated but why?

The 'red sky at night' rhyme is more than an old wives' tale and has some meteorological foundation - in England at least.

To explain why we'll need to know why clouds sometimes appear red and how that may be used to predict the weather. Firstly, why do clouds often appear red in the morning and evening?

- Sunlight is broken into the familiar rainbow spectrum of varying-wavelength colours as it passes through the atmosphere.

- The blue/violet end of the spectrum is diverted more than the red/orange.

- When the sun is low in the sky, at dawn and dusk, sunlight travels through more atmosphere than at other times of day. The red wavelength is better able to go on a direct course and be reflected back off clouds, whereas the blue light is more scattered before reaching the cloud and is therefore less visible. So, we see the clouds as red as the light that is reaching them is primarily red.

...and how does that help predict the weather?

- The weather in the UK comes from the west, i.e. the wind is primarily westerly.

- The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

- If there is broken cloud in the morning we may look to the west and see red light reflecting back from the cloud, i.e. 'red sky in the morning'. As the clouds are coming towards us there must be a chance of rain, at least an increased chance compared with the cloudless period we had just enjoyed.

- Likewise for 'red sky at night'. If we see red clouds in the evening they will be in the east and have already passed us by, giving a good chance of clear skies and fine weather ahead.

Answer 2

Red sky in the morning,
sailors take warning.
Red sky at night,
a sailor's delight.

This is as old as the ocean.
To sailor's it has to do with
the high tides. It's said that
a red sky is a good predictor
of a high tide.
If the tide is high and coming
in, in the morning, it's hard to
get your ship out to sea.
If it is high and coming in at night,
it's smooth sailing to home port.
Sometimes the sky is red, just
because it is a beautiful sunset.
So it is hard to know if this
myth is true or not.

Answer 3

Weather systems usually move from west to east. A reddish evening sky can be caused by sunlight shining through dry dust particles in the western sky. This dry sky may move overhead by morning. If the morning is gray in the east, it means the clouds have already passed you.

Answer 4

the color of the sunset and sunrise is determined partly by the weather and storm fronts. since the storm fronts tend to move from west to east, A red sunset would indicate clearing conditions into the night. A red sunrise could indicate a change toward worse weather.

Answer 5

well all i no is that at night red skies is the sunset and salors love it. red skies in the morning is when a battle or something