Spectacular Sunset in the Surrey Hills – Woodhill Cottage

Red Sky at Night Shepherd’s Delight so the old folklore rhyme goes. Last Saturday we had a horribly wet day full of heavy stormy showers. Towards early evening the clouds started to break up. The mix of the day’s towering, angry Cumulus Congestus clouds together with high altitude Cyrus clouds delivered a spectacular sunset.

Cirrus clouds, the highest of all clouds, are composed entirely of ice crystals and typically form above 24,000 ft. As the sun sinks below the horizon it lights up these high altituders which become deep crimson before fading into the night.

The mix of low level Cumulus clouds breaking up and high level Cyrus gave us one of the most defined Red Sky at Night sunsets we have seen since living here.

So was the old folklore tale true to its word? The sun only has chance to light the underneath of a layer of clouds like Cyrus if the skies are clear off in the direction where it is setting. Weather systems in temperate regions tend to move from west to east so it makes sense that although there are clouds above, it is fairly cloud free to the west where the sun is setting, allowing the crimson light to light from below them.

Sure enough Sunday was a beautiful day with blue skies. See below post from last Sunday.

But enough of the weather science – enjoy the images of the sunset.