Talk:Red sky at morning

Another one we heard was

Red sky at night sailors, delight, red sky in morning sailors be warned — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1017:B827:9669:E183:68E2:C4DD:1010 (talk) 22:39, 8 October 2023 (UTC)

Latitude
Doesn't west to east movement of weather systems only apply to certain latitudes? The "red sky" adage was developed by people living in mid-latitudes, but the empirical basis (weather coming in from the west) doesn't apply in the tropics or at the poles.192.104.39.2 (talk) 17:07, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Merge into Weather lore?
This article doesn't really expand much at all on Weather_lore, in fact that section has information not included in this article such as further translations. Perhaps a merger would be more appropriate? -- Fursday 01:11, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Bollocks!
I have tagged the article with Contradicts. This seems to be total bollocks. It contradicts itself and cannot answer the two central points: Even some "reliable" sources get things mixed up. This page by the Library of Congress Science Reference Services basically says that Red sky at night is caused by high pressure and good weather (in the west), while Red sky in morning indicates a storm system to the east. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 05:57, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Is the red caused by high pressure or low pressure?
 * Do weather systems move east to west or vice versa?
 * Is the old adage “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” true, or is it just an old wives’ tale?

Personal experience behind this expression
One morning a couple of years ago, as I got into my car to go to work in southern UK, I saw very clearly the "red sky at morning". This was when the sun was just coming over the horizon and shining on the lower edge of clouds overhead. It stopped me and I had to watch in amazement for a couple of minutes until the sun was high enough that the underside of the clouds returned to their normal grey.

Points of info: 1) in the mid-latitude northern hemisphere, weather systems move (generally) west to east with the prevailing jet stream 2) sunlight falling on the undersides of clouds is often red(ish) or pink(ish). (Due to angle and the length that light travelled through the atmosphere.)

In my situation, the sky to the east was clear, while clouds were moving in from the west. So the sun was briefly able to shine on the underside of the clouds and, for a few minutes, it was a marvelous sight. But it also told me that yesterday's clear weather was moving on to the east and cloudy weather was moving in from the west. And thus, one could assume, that stormy weather was moving in with the clouds. (That day's weather later confirmed this.)

Similarly, if red sky at night, the cloudy weather is moving on to the east and clear weather is moving in from the west which allows the setting sun to shine on the underside of the clouds as they move overhead to the east.

After seeing this display, I am no longer interested in theories of defraction or dust scattering and so forth. Dust scattering may increase the red(ish)ness, but I can't see it as the cause. Sorry. I will always understand this expression as refering to the sky changing from clear to cloudy (morning) or cloudy to clear (evening) and what the helmsman would see at first (or last) light as this happened.