Hope you are having a Ruby Red Day! Because of all the rain we have been getting lately, my husband and I were talking about this phrase. Neither of us could get it correct, so I decided to look it up and do a Ruby Red post on it.
The common phrase “Red sky at morning” is a line from an ancient rhyme often repeated by mariners during the past centuries:
‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.’
William Shakespeare wrote:
“Like a red morn that ever yet betokened,
Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field,
Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds,
Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.”
According to the Bible, Jesus said: “When in evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: For the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering.”
Courtesy of http://www.fineartamerica.com via Yahoo Images
The rhyme is a rule of thumb for weather forecasting, dating back over 2,000 years, based on the reddish glow of the morning or evening sky, caused by haze or clouds related to storms in the region. Due to the rotation of the Earth, from west to east, storm systems tend to travel eastward across a local region of the globe. A reddish sunrise, caused by particles suspended in the air, often foreshadows an approaching storm, which will be arriving from the West, within the day. Conversely, a reddish sunset often indicates that a storm system is on the west side (same side as the sunset), travelling away from the viewer. A similar movement is noted all around the world, in both the northern and southern hemisphere.
There are occasions where a storm system might rain itself out before reaching the observer (who had seen the morning red sky). However, for ships at sea, the wind and rough seas, from an approaching storm system, could still be a problem, even without rainfall.
This concludes our Ruby Red Weather Forecast. Hope you enjoyed!
Read more ‘Colors’ at: https://mauldinfamily1.wordpress.com/category/colors/
That is one stunning sunset!
Mary in Blue and Red
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🙂
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I love to look at the sky – especially when she adorns her many colors – just a glorious sight to behold.
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Yes, she is! 🙂
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Gray here.
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Sounds like rain. 🙂
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I always wondered why a sailor should take warning with red sky in the morning. I’ll have to watch for the next one and see what our weather does. Although rain is a pretty good guess most of the time!
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