Weather Lore: "Red Sky At Night" / " ... Morning" ?

[Swifty]

The North American version is:

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning
Red sky at night, sailors delight

Denmark/Norway (my favourite so far):

Morning red gives wet days,
Evening wet gives sweet days

Italian:

Red at night, good weather is hoped,
Red in the morning bad weather approaches

French ( poetic sounding in French but loses in translation ):

Rouge le soir, bel espoir,
Rouge le matin del la pluie en chemin

Red at night, great hope,
Red in the morning, rain on the way

 

[ChasFink]

I've always heard it as sailor's delight, but yeah, the basic saying goes back to at least the New Testament (Matthew 16:2-3):

He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

 

[brownmane]

...pictures in the Observers Book of Weather, whose dubious 50s-era colour rendition, captions and cloud types are still laser etched into my brain over forty years later:

View attachment 58365

And that's where the saying comes from. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight: red sky in morning, sailors take warning." I just thought it kind of funny that whoever designed the plate caption explained this almost as if no one had heard the adage.

 

[Sid]

And that's where the saying comes from. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight: red sky in morning, sailors take warning." I just thought it kind of funny that whoever designed the plate caption explained this almost as if no one had heard the adage.

I've always known that particular saying as being a 'Shepherd's delight,' never heard it to be a Sailor's.

 

[Yithian]

Shepherd's delight in my mind—though whether there's an influence from Shepherd's pie, I don't know.

 

[eburacum]

Milton Jones' absurdist version;
Red sky at night, Angel Delight.

 

[Sid]

Shepherd's delight in my mind—though whether there's an influence from Shepherd's pie, I don't know.

There's always "Pie in the Sky" for ya!

 

[brownmane]

I've always known that particular saying as being a 'Shephard's delight,' never heard it to be a Sailor's.

I only heard sailor, which, to my mind sounds more relevant than shepherd. The ability to read weather would be very important to sailors.

 

[Sollywos]

I'd always used 'shepherds' but was aware that some people said 'sailors' both are appropriate I think.

 

[Sid]

I'd always used 'shepherds' but was aware that some people said 'sailors' both are appropriate I think.

Your spot-on 'Sollywos!' Since having a quick online search on the origin of the saying, it seems both versions have equal validation.
https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/...pherds-delight-weather-uk-sunset-sunrise.html
Cheers.

 

[Sid]

Suggest a new one ~ for Weather Forecaster's. . .
'Red sky at night, maybe tomorrow's weather'll be alright?'

 

[Xanatic*]

Red sky at night, probably somebody set cars on fire again.

 

[Coal]

Red sky at night, aurora borealis.

 

[Lord Lucan]

aurora borealis.