Lee Anna Haynes, age 13 of Columbia, SC ;for  his question:

Why does a red sunset mean fair weather?

The weathermen of olden days were the farmer and the fisherman the shepherd and the miller. There was no Weather Bureau to gather facts from far and wide to form a picture of tomorrow's weather. 3o the old tamers worked out signs and often put them in verses. Their predictions were based on what had happened many times before. They noticed, for examples that a fine day often followed a red sunset. This old sign still holds true sometimes, but not always.

Our weather rides the prevailing westerly winds. In the main, our cloudy storms come from the waste sail over the sky and disappear in the

east. A red sunset means a cloudy evening. These clouds may well pass overhead during the nights leaving a clear sky to greet us in the morning. But when the sunrise is red, we have a cloudy morning and clouds very often bring rain.