How to: Read the Skies

Tip # 72

Red Sky at Night – A sailor’s delight. In many places, weather moves west. If the setting sun shines through clouds, turning them reddish, bad weather has likely already passed.

Red Sky in the Morning – A sailor takes warning. If the sunrise reddens clouds, it can mean that weather’s heading for you – especially in England, where the weather usually comes in from the east.

Cloud Direction Changes – In the best weather, clouds move in one direction with the trade winds of the area (from the southeast in much of the North Atlantic, for example). A quick change means rougher weather ahead.

Stratocumuli Become Stratus – When those cotton-ball-looking clouds turn to the greyer, less defined sort and start blocking out the sun, you could very well be looking at rain within 12 hours.

The Squall – Like a wall of darkness stretching from the clouds to the water and blocking out any semblance of a horizon, the squall looks like weather. If it’s in front of you, batten those hatches. – CR

Comments
  • Acheck074

    The Red Sky thing…not quite right…

    Check this out:
    http://wilstar.com/skywatch.htm“Evening red and morning gray

    Helps the traveler on his way.

    Evening gray and morning red

    Brings down rain upon his head.”

    Weather systems usually move from west to east. A reddish evening sky
    can be caused by sunlight shining through dry dust particles in the
    western sky. This dry sky may move overhead by morning. If the morning
    is gray in the east, it means the clouds have already passed you.
    Conversely, if the evening is gray, it means the clouds have not yet reached you. Rain may be on its way. and this is similar:“Rainbow in the morning, Shepherds take warning.

    Rainbow at night, Shepherd’s delight.”

    A rainbow in the morning is formed when light from the rising sun in the
    east strikes and refracts through the water droplets in a rain cloud in
    the western sky. Rainbows always occur in the part of the sky opposite
    the sun. Since most storms (though not all) come out of the west, a
    rainbow in the western sky is a sign of rain. A rainbow in the eastern
    sky, as would occur in the evening, is a sign the rain has passed.