Weather Forecast? Clear Tomorrow

  Mark and I meandered down to the pier this evening just in time to watch the sun slide down behind the pines.  The setting sun blazed across the sky making the entire thing red.  Hmmm.  I have heard several old sayings about this and the weather for the coming day.  "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight" or the marine version of "Red sky at night, sailor's delight" both popped into the head this evening.  Those folks sure did like their sunsets, I suppose.   Both occupations seem to love red sunsets.  I pondered if there was much truth to the sayings.  I had read once that it all had to do with atmospheric pressure or some such scientific knowledge.

  I checked and sure enough, it seems as if both the shepherds and sailors were great at weather-forecasting.  Our day should be bright and sunny tomorrow.  According to knowledgeable folks, that all that redness is caused by dust and other small particles trapped up in the atmosphere by high pressure.  This supposedly scatters all the blue light and leaves only the red visible.  When we see the red sky at night, it means that a high pressure system is moving in from the west and with it comes dry and mild weather. 

  Mark and I watched that sun disappear and then headed back to the Little Bayou House. I can rest assured that my garden will need to be watered in the morning and that if I hang the laundry on the line it will get dry.  There will be no storms on the Bayou tomorrow!  The sky said so!