The Answer: Red sky at night, The origin of the red sky proverb can be traced back to the Bible where in the book of Matthew, Jesus says to a group of fishermen, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’ and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.”

The sky is blue — physicists tell us — because blue light in the sun’s rays bends more than red light. But this extra bending, or scattering, applies just as much to violet light, so it is reasonable to ask why the sky isn’t purple.

The smaller the wavelength of the light the more the light is scattered by the particles in the atmosphere. This is because the sun emits a higher concentration of blue light waves in comparison violet. Furthermore, as our eyes are more sensitive to blue rather than violet this means to us the sky appears blue.

But the purple skies were mostly caused by the lack of molecules to scatter the color away from our eyes. A similar phenomenon had occurred when purple skies were also spotted during Hurricane Dorian at Florida, U.S., in September, according to CNN. But although the purple sky was beautiful, it was also deadly.

At night, when that part of Earth is facing away from the Sun, space looks black because there is no nearby bright source of light, like the Sun, to be scattered. If you were on the Moon, which has no atmosphere, the sky would be black both night and day.

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord,” – Joel 2:31. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord.” – Acts 2:20.

“Red sky at night, shepherds delight” can often be proven true, since red sky at night means fair weather is generally headed towards you. A red sky at sunset means high pressure is moving in from the west, so therefore the next day will usually be dry and pleasant.

A red sky in the morning means that the sky is clear to the east, where the sun is rising, but cloudy overhead, suggesting that the clouds are only just beginning to move in. So, in this part of the world, a red sky in the morning usually means bad weather is to come.

When snow is falling, that same light reflects off all the different snowflakes, giving a pink hue to the sky. The light from the sun, setting in the west, will reflect off the backside of the clouds, meaning drier and better weather is coming the following day.

His answer below. The color of our skies is a matter of the sizes of the particles making up our air. Particles smaller than visible light wavelengths scatter short wavelengths (e.g. blue light) much more strongly than long wavelengths (red).

At sunrise and sunset, the Sun is very low in the sky, which means that the sunlight we see has travelled through a much thicker amount of atmosphere. The shorter wavelength blue light is scattered further, as the sunlight passes over a greater distance, and we see the longer wavelength yellow and red light.

Well when the sun sets, it is lower down and the light has further to travel. Blue light can’t travel very far so much of it ‘scatters’ out before it reaches us. But red light can, which is why the sky appears more red and pink than usual.

Typical pollution droplets such as those found in urban smog or summertime haze are on the order of . Similarly, the vibrant oranges and reds of “clean” sunsets give way to pale yellows and pinks when dust and haze fill the air. But airborne pollutants do more than soften sky colors.

During sunrise, sunlight has a longer distance to travel through the sky before it reaches you. The colors that make it to your eyeballs are pinks and oranges and reds, because they are less likely to be scattered by the atmosphere. In turn, the morning sunlight fills the sky with a blaze of pinks and reds.

But it appears to rise and set because of the Earth’s rotation on its axis. It makes one complete turn every 24 hours. As the Earth rotates toward the east, it looks like the sun is moving west. As the Earth rotates, different locations on Earth pass through the sun’s light.

North of Gisborne, New Zealand, around the coast to Opotiki and inland to Te Urewera National Park, The East Cape has the honour of witnessing the world’s first sunrise each and every day.

east

When the sun is low on the horizon during sunrises and sunsets, the sunlight travels through more of the atmosphere. Shorter wavelength colors (blues and violets) get scattered out. This leaves more of the longer wavelength colors like yellow, orange, and red. This is why sunrises often take on such colors.

The sky is blue due to a phenomenon called Raleigh scattering. This scattering refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (of which light is a form) by particles of a much smaller wavelength. These shorter wavelengths correspond to blue hues, hence why when we look at the sky, we see it as blue.

“Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”

The sky is blue because of the way sunlight interacts with our atmosphere. Light moves as waves of different lengths: some are short, making bluer light, and some are long, making redder light. As sunlight reaches our atmosphere, molecules in the air scatter the bluer light but let the red light pass through.