Elly MacKay’s “Red Sky At Night” - The entire book explained

Wisdom can be found in the natural world. We just need to look. Elly MacKay’s “Red Sky At Night” returns us to our rural roots. There is no need for technology. There are no equations. Simple scrutiny of nature can lead to understanding the important processes at work in the world. Some of these ancient poetic observations are treasures supported by modern science. Some are simply nice poems. Both are fun.

Published by Tundra Books you can find Elly MacKay’s book at this link.
https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/251814/red-sky-night#9781101917831
Excerpted with permission from Elly MacKay’s Red Sky at Night (published by Tundra Books, 2018).

Every piece of weather wisdom used in "Red Sky At Night" is explained by clicking on the image of the page... I will get to every page but it may take some time...

Warmest regards… Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Elly MacKay’s “Red Sky At Night”

Wisdom can be found in the natural world. We just need to look. Elly MacKay’s “Red Sky At Night” returns us to our rural roots. There is no need for technology. There are no equations. Simple scrutiny of nature can lead to understanding the important processes at work in the world. Some of these ancient poetic observations are treasures supported by modern science. Some are simply nice poems. Both are fun.

Published by Tundra Books you can find Elly MacKay’s book at this link.
https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/251814/red-sky-night#9781101917831
One piece of weather wisdom is so important that Elly uses it as the title of her book. A red sky at night also graces the cover. Yes that piece of weather wisdom is most important.

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. 
True (in temperate zones). In some parts of the world, the saying goes, “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight.” But whether you are on the sea or in the meadow, red skies (but not red clouds) at sunset mean there is calm air in the western sky. By the next morning, that nice weather should be right overhead.  Excerpted with permission from Elly MacKay’s Red Sky at Night (published by Tundra Books, 2018).

A red or orange cloud free sky at night does lead to a sailor’s delight. The path of light from the sun must be unobstructed by its longest path through the atmosphere. Rayleigh scattering from atmospheric molecules leaves only the longest red wavelengths of the direct beam of white light from the sun on the horizon. The short wavelength blues are the first to be scattered followed by the progressively longer wavelengths. I have used the following graphic for years to explain Rayleigh scattering - really.

Only the longest orange and red wavelengths make it to the sailor’s eyes much to their delight. With no clouds getting in the way of the direct beam from the sun there can be no weather and no ascent in the atmosphere to produce any rain. 

Red clouds at night is another story. Red clouds at night, sailors take fright. I am nobody’s poet but this version of the classic weather prose gets the point across.  Those red clouds indicate that there are both moisture and ascent in the atmosphere – there is weather on the way. Cloud droplets in a really moist atmosphere get even larger and scatter every colour out of the direct beam from the sun except of red. The structure of those clouds completes the weather story. If those red clouds appear behind deformation zones as in red streaks in a sunset sky, wind and daylong rain are nigh.

The large particles that comprise clouds are responsible for the Mie scattering of all of the wavelengths of light – even red. That is why clouds tend to be white. All colours are equally scattered by the larger particles. As the particles increase in size more of that energy is forward scattered in the direction the light was originally travelling. Bright red clouds at night indicate that larger particles are scattering the red sunset colours directly into the sailor’s eyes. Abundant moisture makes those cloud droplets larger so that the redder the sunset clouds the more frightened those sailors should be.

The photo I took of these red sunset clouds preceded the biggest snowstorm of that winter. I saw it coming and perhaps should have been frightened. Being a meteorologist I was excited and took the picture instead. 

Warmest regards… Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

CPAWS Press Release for DRAW 2018

The DRAW 2017 artists retreat was everything I’d hoped it would be - adventure and camaraderie among artists in the wilderness, the inspiring influence that immersion in nature always has on my work, and the excitement of seeing it in the work of the others. All this, followed by the pleasure of having our art exhibited together, and auctioned at the gala in October, a successful fundraiser for CPAWS-OV’s campaign to protect the precious Dumoine watershed.
Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills, Ontario

Sharing the Dumoine experience with a group of like minded artists is an experience you will not forget. The Dumoine puts the "wild" into the plein air painting of wilderness. You have to be there to really experience the beauty of Canada - with nothing between you and nature as it should be - immersed in the moment.
Phil Chadwick ... Here is what I painted in DRAW 2017

CPAWS Press Release has much more information.

http://cpaws-ov-vo.org/news/press-release-draw-retreat

Weather Wisdom: Yellow streaks in a sunset sky, wind and daylong rain are nigh.

Wisdom can be found in the natural world. We just need to look. Elly MacKay’s “Red Sky At Night” returns us to our rural roots. There is no need for technology. There are no equations. Simple scrutiny of nature can lead to understanding the important processes at work in the world. Some of these ancient poetic weather observations are treasures supported by modern science. Some are simply nice poems. Both are fun.

Published by Tundra Books you can find Elly MacKay’s book at this link.

One piece of weather wisdom that Elly examines is …

Yellow streaks in a sunset sky, wind and daylong rain are nigh. 

True. Cirrus clouds look like “yellow streaks” at sunset. The Latin name for these clouds mean wispy hair, which is just what they look like. These clouds are a sign of changing weather. “Nigh” in this saying means coming soon. Excerpted with permission from Elly MacKay’s Red Sky at Night (published by Tundra Books, 2018).

Yes, this is my favourite weather rhyme and very true. Those cirrus cloud lines in the sky are called deformation zones and they tell of the approach of a storm. At sunset you are looking westerly and those high cirrus clouds behind the deformation zone are coming your way. 

Deformation zones are always associated with a current of air and their characteristics reveal everything about the weather. Think of this particular current as a rising conveyor belt transporting warmth and moisture to the north. This southerly current of air follows a high pressure area while it precedes a low. Fair weather with the high must be replaced by stormy weather with the low. 

Observers of a warm conveyor belt which is the yellow diverging arrow in the above drawing, will first see the leading edge of thin cirrostratus high in the atmosphere. As the transport of heat and moisture continues this cloud will thicken behind a lower level deformation zone. Nimbostratus and rain will follow behind an even lower deformation zone when the warm conveyor belt completes its delivery of moisture. 

The image below is looking eastward at the same warm conveyor belt. The clouds on the right are a real life example of the scientific graphic on the left. I took that picture looking upward at the approaching layer of clouds from the approximate location of Phil’s green eye in the left portion of the image.

The deformation zone lines in the sky result from the stretching of the air between the opposing circulations around the high and low. The accompanying graphics hopefully saved a lot of words.

In actuality the deformation zone lines are just where quasi-horizontal layers of moisture intersect the three-dimensional skin that encapsulates the mass of air. That warm and moist air is being transported to the north as part of the energy balance of the earth. More on this later…

The atmosphere is a fluid like any other substance that flows. One can create your own deformation zone using a paddle to create a current (jet stream in the image below) in a pond. The leading edge associated with this flow is a deformation zone made obvious by the contrast between the open water and the duck weed. 

Yellow streaks of deformation zone cirrus foretell of the moisture being transported to your location by the warm conveyor belt of a storm. There is a lot of very fine science in a little prose. 

In fact art is science and science is art. I have painted a lot of deformation zones and have turned those into a science on which I based my 36 year career with Environment Canada. The weather is your friend. 

My thanks to Elly MacKay, Tundra Books, Penquin Random House and COMET (for the scientific graphics) where I finished the last decade of my career publishing meteorological training modules. 

I am thinking of explaining the science behind more of the weather wisdom sayings as time permits. 

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

Miskwaa Studio and Outdoor Art Gallery

The Art World continues to change in a good way... plan to visit the Miskwaa Studio and Outdoor Art Gallery between Bobcaygeon and Buckhorn off Highway 36. It is worth any drive.

Yes... I have some art there as well.

Just because a work of art has not sold only mean that the right eyes have not seen it yet. It is not enough to hang art on the wall and wait. Social media and the positive power of communication through the internet has changed everything. But that takes dedication and creativity which is an art form in itself. I always thought that art needs to be displayed in the environment it was created to really be able to understand and appreciate all of the nuances. This is rarely possible but Daniel Marlatt has succeeded... enjoy!

EcoArtists: Reconnecting People to the Beauty of Nature

In early June my friend Aleta Karstad was recognized for her conservation efforts through art, as a recent recipient of the “Robert Bateman Award” from the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF). This award recognizes people who furthers the appreciation for Canada’s wildlife and habitats through artistic expression. 

People make the difference. In "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate" by Naomi Klein one message is that real change must start with the grass roots people. People like Aleta are the real leaders. Politics and business are much too involved in self promotion and power to lead the way. History reveals this to be only too true. I tiny percentage of the wealth amassed by these groups could solve the environmental woes.

I attended the recent Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) Conference in Halifax in June and shared these thoughts with another friend and the editor for CMOS. Here is the result of those conversations. 

http://bulletin.cmos.ca/ecoartists-reconnecting-people/

http://bulletin.cmos.ca/ecoartists-reconnecting-people/

In early August Aleta and I and a dozen or more other artists will be back on the Dumoine with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) as part of DRAW 2018. Maybe we can make a difference. Here is the plein air art that I completed as part of DRAW 2017.