Weather phenomena are always fascinating for me… perhaps because I was once an observer at a weather station.
Have a look at these sunsets
Caused by sunlight interacting with low cloud.
Why are sunsets emotionally appealing?
Do we have any interesting sunset photos?
If you want to understand the philosophical significance of a sunset, you should read Thomas Gray’s poem
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard "
The first verse will be familiar
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”
Published in 1751. There are many verses.
It is about the passing of life which is clearly symbolised by the passing of daylight.
A truly beautiful, simple poem, written while the author was mourning the death of a friend.
So a sunset is a time mark … a beginning and an end.
A time for reflection. A quiet time.
Sometimes its just as beautiful to watch a sunset with your back facing West, where I live, at sunset and I look East - I can see the orangy (think so anyway - I’m colour-blind) glow on gum tree tree trunks and foliage, and to the foothills and the sun reflected from the windows of a few houses on the hills (there’s not a lot of housing there).
Also - “crepuscular” also refers to dawn… Animals that are “crepuscular” are mostly only active at dawn and dusk…
You are right.
Dawns dont seem to have the same feeling as sunsets. They are also a time mark, but more of a beginning than an end.
Both are nice, Neville. Here’s a sunrise behind Mt Hood, in my back yard, and a sunset off the Oregon Coast. I lifted the sunrise from a local photographer’s site, but I took the sunset myself.
They are altocumulus clouds, I think.
I think you’re correct, Nev.
Third day in Melbourne - haven’t really seen blue sky, never mind ‘crepuscular rays’…
It was allegedly a “blue moon” last night - my mum was going to go outside and see if it was visible - nope! This is Melbourne…
I lived here for 3 years and did 3 years of high school here - and stayed for a few months in 2017 - but I couldn’t live here again long term - I get depressed without naked sunlight and blue skies…
And I’ve noticed - that this far south - even when the sky’s blue - it’s a more pallid, pale, washed out shade of blue - it’s a much more vibrant blue in Perth…
And yeah yeah, I am colour-blind (red-green) - but the blue spectrum isn’t affected, and it’s probably unscientific and personally anecdotal, I believe I’m more sensitive to nuances of blue than others who take the whole spectrum for granted… The only issue I have occasionally with blue is with pale purples like lilac or mauve - they just look “blue” to me, due to my insensitivity to the red spectrum…
And I remember at school - I was completely unable to read the teacher’s writing on the blackboard if they chose red chalk…
Melbourne is only 8 more degrees south. You’re probably seeing a climate difference.
Yeah - but it makes a difference…
The average winter maximum temperature in Perth is often only 2 C higher than Perth - but - it gets to that temperature fairly early in the day, and stay close to that throughout most of the day…
Take Saturday - it was 19 in Perth and 17 in Melbourne…
But the chill factor lasts hours longer here in Melbourne, and there’s often a chill southerly (inbound from Antarctica via Tasmania), and wind chill makes everything feel colder than what the mercury’s reporting… In winter in Perth - when I was commuting to the city daily - all I’d need during the day (e.g. going outside to grab a bite) I’d be wearing a long sleeve shirt over a t-shirt with a leather sports jacket… Melbourne (I worked here in the winter of 2017) - I’d need at least 3 layers of long sleeved garments, and FOUR for the morning commute!
Just looked at the BoM (Bureau of Meteorology) app on my phone - it’s reporting 10C at 2:30 pm - and - “feels like 6.7C” (with a forecast max of 13C) - and yeah - it’s brass monkey’s out there! In Perth at 2:30 pm - it would be 19 or 20 degrees and little or no “wind chill”…
When I went to the University of Pennsylvania (many years ago), I thought it would be much warmer than Oregon, since it’s several degrees south (39N vs 42N). But I had to buy and wear some extra layers because the east coast doesn’t have a nice Humboldt current keeping it warm like we have on the west coast. Are the surrounding currents influencing the micro climates around Perth and Melbourne?
I think it may be the wind currents, rather than ocean.
Perth has a “mediterranean” climate - similar to California - I can still remember learning about it in high school geography (I was actually in Melbourne at the time) :
Wet Westerly winds in Winter
To the east of Perth are fairly low foothills - and beyond that the wheatbelt, and just beyond that pretty much desert. In summer an Easterly will be baking hot and dry coming straight off the desert…
I live about 25 km inland from the coast - so in summer the “Fremantle Doctor” (an afternoon seabreeze) doesn’t reach as far as my place…
Melbourne can tend to get high humidity in summer - but not as humid as Sydney further north (similar latitude as Perth - where it hardly ever gets humid - except the odd occasion when a dying tropical cyclone reaches that far south)…
