"Red Sky at Morning, Sailors Take Warning - Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight"

Seems bass-ackwards to me as our weather pattern is primarily Southwest to Northeast.

Therefore, if the sky is red in the morning, cloud cover would be East of us, indicating it has passed. Conversely, red sky at night means cloud cover is West of us, indicating oncoming weather.

Perhaps coined in an area where the weather patterns are different?

Dunno? Seems to apply here in the PNW - both on land and the water. Ymmv?

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Dunno? Seems to apply here in the PNW - both on land and the water. Ymmv?

Yep. Same here, and our pattern is, as well, primarily west to east.

Not clouds, dust and high pressure.

Second linky

The concept is over two thousand years old and is cited in the New Testament as established wisdom that prevailed among the Jews of the 1st century AD by Jesus in Matthew 16:2-3.


The rhyme is a rule of thumb used for weather forecasting during the past two millennia. It is based on the reddish glow of the morning or evening sky, caused by trapped particles scattering the blue light from the sun in a stable air mass.[5]

If the morning skies are of an orange-red glow, it signifies a high-pressure air mass with stable air-trapping particles, like dust, which scatters the sun's blue light. This high pressure is moving towards the east, and a low-pressure system moves in from the west. Conversely, in order to see "red sky" in the evening, high-pressure air mass from the west scatters the blue light in the atmospheric particles, leaving the orange-red glow. High-pressure air mass signifies stable weather, while low pressure signifies unstable weather.

There are occasions where a storm system might rain itself out before reaching the observer (who had seen the morning red sky). For ships at sea, however, the wind and rough seas from an approaching storm system could still be a problem, even without rainfall.

Because of different prevailing wind patterns around the globe, the traditional rhyme is generally not correct at lower latitudes of both hemispheres, where prevailing winds are from east to west. The rhyme is generally correct at middle latitudes where, due to the rotation of the Earth, prevailing winds travel west to east.

Wiki Linky

It has to do with dust. Low pressure is windier and thus dust is kicked up. So if low pressure is to the west it means bad weather is approaching tomorrow, and the indication is a more colorful sunset, especially if there are clouds but not obscuring the sun.

High pressure to the west will be less dust and clouds.

I'm not sure this applies to the modern world which pumps lots of dust and pollution into the air regardless of weather.

Here in UK it's 'Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning etc.....'

Old angler adage.
Wind from the North,
The prudent angler dare not go forth.

Wind from the East, fish bite the least.

Wind from the South, blows the hook in the Fishes mouth.

Wind from the West, fish bite the best.
………………………

I never truly care, I just like to fish!