蜜芽传媒

You may have grown up hearing the saying 鈥渞ed sky at night, sailor鈥檚 delight, red sky in morning, sailor鈥檚 warning鈥� - or maybe a variation on that theme. CrowdScience listener Alison, who sees many dazzling red skies from her home in the Yukon, Canada, certainly did. And now she wonders if the saying is a sensible prediction of coming weather or just another old wives鈥� tale.

Alison and presenter Anand Jagatia run a little experiment, getting up at the crack of dawn and staying up until dusk for 5 days to record if the sunset and sunrise can predict their local weather.

Whilst we wait for the results, we track this weather proverb back to its ancient roots, and find out how important it, and other such proverbs, may have been to the people without satellites or even thermometers to guide them.

We also tap into the expertise of modern-day weather predictors, meteorologists. What are the atmospheric pressure systems that cause red skies, and how do they influence the weather globally? And what exceptions to the rules might turn a trusty old proverb on its head?