“Red Sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red Sky at
morning, sailor take warning.”
The American West is famous for its
red sunrises and sunsets, and the name Red Sky captures our western
roots.
At the same time, it reflects public relations traditional role of anticipating the future – both good and bad – and preparing clients to weather out the storm, or seize the opportunities of promising times.
Predicting the weather...
The notion that a red sky predicts the weather dates back thousands
of years, and has some meteorological validity. When the sun is low
in the sky, at dawn and dusk, sunlight travels through more atmosphere
than at other times of day. The red wavelength is better able to
go on a direct course and be reflected back off clouds, whereas the
blue light is more scattered before reaching the cloud and less visible.
So we see the clouds as red as the light that is reaching them is
primarily red.
In regions of the world where weather comes from the west, if we look to the west and see red light reflecting back from the clouds, there must be a chance of rain, at least compared to a morning with no “red clouds”.
Likewise for 'red sky at night'. If we see red clouds in the evening
they will be in the east and have already passed us by, giving a
good chance of clear skies and fine weather ahead.
Anticipating and preparing for the future – the good or bad, red sky or not – is the responsibility of every good public relations practitioner.