JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Weather forecasting today is a complex dance between weather models, distant data from satellites and weather observations from remote corners of the earth, all mixed together and interpreted by meteorologists to create a accurate forecast.
Yet some simple and traditional weather folklore rings a bit of truth to them as well.
For example, the phrase often spoken by sailors of years past "red sky at night sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailors take warning."
In reality, there is some scientific basis to this phrase.
During sunsets a reddish sky can indicate aerosols, dust or dirt in the atmosphere. This is thanks to high pressure and stable are allowing these particles to stay suspended longer and thus creating beautiful sunsets.
Another factor for the red sky at night part of the phrase is when when storms are departing typically to the east with mid-latitude systems clouds will be illuminated as the storm pulls away creating a reddish sky.
Conversely, a red sky in the morning could indicate an approaching weather system with mid and high level clouds ahead of it creating a reddish morning sky.
This phrase is best to be used to describe weather at mid-latitudes with large scale systems moving from west to east and is not always best for summer afternoon thunderstorms like we see here on the First Coast.