Red Sky

This is a sunset from a 2008 camping trip over on the Eastern Shore looking out towards the bay. The sky and that lone pine tree put on quite a performance each evening, except for that one night when horizontal rain and hurricane-force winds forced us to remain inside the camper crying praying for survival.

But this is not a story about a disastrous family camping trip, it's a brief talk about forecasting the weather.

With its pinkish hue, the sky above reminds me of the saying:

Red sky at night,
Sailor's delight;
Red sky at morning,
Sailor's take warning.

Although today we have radar technology providing anybody's best guess our 7-day forecasts, not long ago people relied on Nature's cues to anticipate weather changes. Some still do, especially around here.

Below is some background on the red sky phenomenon.

From rhymes.org

"Red Sky at Night"
Practical origins for this English nursery rhyme are based on weather predictions and how a red sky at night would indicate fair weather on the following day. In England the words refer to a shepherd who would say that a red sky in the morning was suggesting inclement weather to follow. In America the words relate to a sailor. It should be remembered that there were no weather forecasts, as such, in days gone by and one had to make one's own weather predictions. Those with the most knowledge and experience such as Sailors and Shepherds, whose lives were dependant on the weather, were fully conversant with changing weather patterns indicated by a "Red Sky at night".

As I write this, on day 4 thousand of a never-ending nor'easter, the sky is neither red, nor white, nor blue, nor pink. It's gray, gray, gray, with a hint of just shoot me now because we're never going to see the sun again.

I'm neither a sailor nor a shepherd, but based on what I see out the window today--high tides and gray skies--I'm predicting yet another day of cold, dreary rain.

And on that note, Happy Monday!

p.s. Many people in Mathews still take their cues from Nature when discussing the forecast. Some in my family read the Farmers' Almanac religiously. I gave up on believing any sort of official weather forecasts long ago and usually just get up, take note of the temperature when I go out to feed the cats, glance at the sky once the sun comes up and take it from there.

This also describes my outlook on life, by the way. No sense trying to predict it, just take it as it comes.