Red Sun

It's that time of year again when the area gets dry, the air smokey and the sun turns red.  This evening, coming home from playing in a concrete, the sun turned a bright red.

Immediately, that saying "Red Sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in the morning, sailors warning."

During the summer months, we usually have one or more forest fires, some in uninhabited areas while others are fairly close to civilization. Its normal for the sky to be filled with particles due to the fires.  As I came down the hill near the distillery, I could see the haze reaching from the ground to the sky.  Someone said there is a fire near the Old Murphy Dome road, not too far from my house.

The reddish color is from the particles suspended in the air that scatters sunlight.  Red suns are seen more often at sunrise and sunset when there is a high pressure system in the area.  In addition, most weather systems travel from west to east in the mid latitudes so this occurs.  Thus when you see a red sun at night, it indicates that fair weather is coming your way.  If the sun is red in the morning, it indicates a less desirable weather system is approaching.

There are multiple fires in the area, so the amount of smoke is higher than normal.  The number of fires has reached a point that you can see and smell the smoke from inside you house.  The whole world has taken on a smokey haze so nothing looks quite real.

One of the things we live with up here is that if the fire is not in an inhabited area, they do not usually bother trying to fight it unless it is heading for a community or town. Think about this, the state of Alaska is bigger than Texas, and California combined.  It is about 2.5 times the size of Texas and some of the state is totally inaccessible except by helicopter.  That is the terrain they ignore if no one is in danger from the fire.

I suspect the amount of particulates will continue to increase due to fires near Murphy Dome, out past Two Rivers, and near Salcha.  I expect one of these days when I'm passing through the airport to see it as smokey inside as outside.  It is rather fun to hear the announcement at the airport stating it is a no smoking facility and yet it is filled with smoke due to the fires.  The smoke come in via the air pumps.

By the way, the red sun is absolutely beautiful.  I saw it around 8:30 this evening, about 4 to 5 hours before sunset.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.