ORLANDO, Fla. – Have you ever noticed that after a thunderstorm, the sunrise or sunset appears to be more vibrant? There’s a reason the vibrant hues fill the sky after the rain is gone. Here’s how it works.
What causes the colors to begin with?
Sunlight is composed of a spectrum of colors. Different colors have different wavelengths; for example, violets and blues have shorter wavelengths compared to oranges and reds.
The color of the sky is produced by an effect called scattering — or the redirection of sunlight by air molecules, which are very tiny particles.
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When thunderstorms produce a lot of rain, it washes the air of pollutants, allowing air molecules to easily scatter.
The tiny air molecules are closer in size to the wavelength of violet light than to red, resulting in colors that are closer to purple.
Clouds are a key player in helping to bring vibrant reds and oranges to the sunrise or sunset. Clouds act as reflectors of light, sending the orange or red light to the ground and limiting the blue light.
The types of clouds in the sky during sunset or sunrise will play a role in how vivid the show is too. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the best sunsets are seen when high and mid-level clouds are in the sky.
While lower-level clouds, like stratocumulus and stratus clouds, don’t usually produce sunsets as vibrant, they still make for a pretty setting in the sky during this time as long as they don’t completely fill the sky blocking the view.
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