Why some sunsets are beautiful and others are duds

Have you ever seen a sunset so beautiful that it took your breath away? On the other hand, have you ever traveled to a scenic location and been less than wowed by the sunset? Let's talk about what makes a sunset beautiful and what makes it a dud.

There's a lot of lore when it comes to the weather and the sky's appearance as the sun sets. The saying “red skies at night sailors delight; red skies in the morning sailors take warning” is famous as a weather prediction tool and there is some science to back it up. But why are some sunsets vibrant and others muted?

First, let's talk about what a beautiful sunset is. Generally, we consider colorful sunsets to be more beautiful than washed-out ones. Hues of red, pink, and orange can streak across the sky as the sun sets, creating a vibrant scene. That's not to say that less colorful sunsets aren't pretty, but usually, the more colorful a sunset is, the better.

Second, what makes the sky burst with colors during the sunset? Scattering. The colors we see, or don't see, are a result of light being scattered as it hits the particles in our atmosphere. The colors we see are determined by the different wavelengths of light and the size of the particles in the atmosphere.

Visible light contains all of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. At sunrise and sunset, sunlight passes through more air in the atmosphere compared to what it passes through when the sun is high in the sky. The more atmosphere light travels through, the more particles there will be to scatter the sunlight.

When the sky is the bright red we love to see in sunsets, it's an indication the atmosphere is full of moisture and dust particles. We see the red color because it has the longest wavelength in the spectrum. The shorter wavelengths, such as blue, aren't visible because they are broken up by the particles in the atmosphere. The longer wavelengths, such as red and orange, are able to travel to our eyes, and thus the sunset is vibrant and beautiful.

Clouds also play a significant role in the beauty of a sunset, but their height matters. Clouds reflect the sun's rays back to the ground, creating a vivid sky. High and mid-level clouds, like altocumulus and cirrus clouds, often provide the most stunning sunsets. Low-level clouds, on the other hand, can lead to a more muted array of colors.

If you manage to catch a picture of a stunning sunset, we want to see it! Send your sunset, sunrise, and any other stunning weather pictures to Weather & Radar.