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Where does the saying "Red sky in the morning sailors take warning, red sky at night sailors? delight. It would seem with our weather pattern here in Utah that the opposite is true.
Thanks. B.
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You know, that's a good one. There's some truth to this but it depends where you are on the globe really. Some of this saying was noted by Shakespeare, this comes from the Library of Congress Page; He said something similar in his play, Venus and Adonis. "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."
In the Bible, (Matthew XVI: 2-3,) 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."
Weather typically moves from west to east. The red sky in the morning at sunrise (sunrise is in the east) is shining in clouds to the west. If those clouds are red and are in the west, they are moving toward you! If the sky is red at night, the sun is setting in the west and shining on clouds to the east means cloud conditions in the west are clear so good weather is moving in.
This saying works in ideal situations. Many times we have red sunsets here and we're totally in for a bad weather day. Cirrus clouds can look red at sunset and are ahead of approaching storms! I wouldn't rely on this saying too much but then again, it came to in a time without all of the knowledge we have today. It does work if you have nothing else to go by, but again, for ideal situations.
With our weather pattern in Utah, we could really have both situations! We can have red skies at night with bad weather and red skies in the morning with bad weather too. You can also have red clouds in the morning and they are retreating. You can have red clouds in the mornings hanging over the Wasatch Mountain Range and they might just sit there all day and dump a lot of snow. We have a ton of different weather situations with red skies.
The thing to remember is that cirrus clouds move ahead of cold fronts, so if you see cirrus clouds keep an eye out, the clouds will start to lower and eventually a storm will come (a rule of thumb).
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
