ORLANDO, Fla. – Red sky at night, sailors delight. You may have heard of that weather folklore before.
Believe it or not, there is meteorological truth behind the age-old saying.
Central Floridians submitted dozens of photos to PinIt of a fiery sky Tuesday evening.
Why so vibrant?
In our part of the world, weather systems usually move from west to east. Behind a strong cold front that moved through the region Tuesday morning, drier air was pushing through.
Since the sun is setting in the west, the light is passing through the drier airmass allows for cleaner scattering of the light.
Therefore, a red sky at night typically means quiet weather is ahead. The opposite is true if the sky is red in the morning. Inclement weather may be expected.
Why more color during sunrise and sunset?
During the afternoon, when the sun is higher in the sky, shorter wavelengths scatter much more efficiently.
Blue happens to have a short wavelength and therefore, our eyes see the scattered blue light.
During sunset, the sunlight is traveling through much more of the atmosphere than during the day.
Sunlight is white but as it passes through the atmosphere, longer wavelength colors, orange and red, make it through. Almost all of the blue light scattered out before making it through.
During winter, the sun is lower in the sky.
The cherry on top was the mid-level cloud cover around Tuesday evening. These clouds acted like a giant reflector to spread the color across the sky.