Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Warning

Do you believe that? Shakespeare did. He said :

" Like a red morn that ever yet betokened,
Wreck to the seaman,
Tempest to the field,
Sorrow to the shepherds,
Woe unto the birds,
Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds."

The weather is not that easy to predict. Colors in the sky before and at sunrise may have a completely different reason. Here in this position so close to the Sierra Leone coast, the sun rises over the African continent. Deserts, dust and a lot of sand close to the coast. Especially the combination of dust particles and moisture is important. Together they decide what colors in the sky we will see. Red is the longest wavelength and it breaks in the atmosphere when the sun is low. The other colors from the spectrum will scatter. So red sunrises and sunsets mean there is a lot of moisture combined with dust in the atmosphere. The sunrises close to an erupted volcano are famous for this effect.

Shakespeare being wrong or right, sunrises so close to the deserts are spectacular, no buildings here to block this effect. At sea, you have the best seat, every morning and night again. For free.