What is a sailors sunset and why is it supposed to mean clear sailing the next day?

Question

What is a sailors sunset and why is it supposed to mean clear sailing the next day?

Answer 1

Red sky in morning - sailors take warning - red sky at night, sailors' delight.  Out at sea, red sunsets or sunrises tell you where the storms are.  If you watch storm tracks, they MOSTLY go from east to west - so a red sky at night is indicative that a storm is to the west, and it is usually clear towards the east.  There are exceptions to that tendency - as an example there are a few hurricanes that have hit the west coast of Florida, crossed over and spun north into the Atlantic, only to hit the coast again in GA and points north...

Answer 2

if you are sailing east why would you care what is to the west? besides if the color of the clouds is dependent on much sunlight reaches those clouds wouldn't a red sunrise mean clear sailing east and a red sunset clear sailing west? sorry for answering a question with a question, lol

Answer 3

where I live, near Charlotte, our summer  weather normally comes in from the west, heading east......so, for us, a red sunset means there's no major storm system heading our way for a bit..... red sky at dawn, means there's heavy weather between us and the sun... either having passed over us or it's a nor'easter/hurricane coming in off the  Atlantic, so we'd better listen to the news/'weather reports to see which.......

our worst weather comes up from the south over Atlanta and there's no celestial hint about that!!.... *smile*...........

Answer 4

Steve E above has it right.  No need to embellish.