Is a ring around the Moon a real weather indicator of storm?
If you’ve ever heard the saying “red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailor’s take warning.” then you know there is an element of truth to these old wives tales. The red sky is caused by refraction of the sunlight in the particulate of the air. The red part of the spectrum is all that gets through. The particulate in the air is an indicator of the amount of particulate in the air (moisture particles are a form of particulate). Along the easter coast of North America the storms tend to come from the water. Since the sun rises in the east over the water, then a red sky in the morning indicates more particulate in the air over the water which can indicate a storm approaching. A red sky at night indicates particulate to the west, which means the particulate is usually headed away from the person seeing it. I know this is an oversimplified explanation, but it shows why a saying that has been around for many generations has a scientific basis. A ring around the moon is a
