I wanted a simple website that quickly shows me the worst weather situation across the cities where my immediate family and close friends are. Not a forecast to read, a glance: the same standard readings on every card, and the one thing that matters most today as the headline.
The name is based on one of my favourite poems when I was a kid. I read it in an outdoor survival book in my scouts years and it stuck.
Red sky at night, sailors' delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.
It is a traditional rhyme with no known author. The older English version says shepherd where sailors say sailor:
Red sky at night, shepherd's delight.
Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.
The earliest written form is two thousand years old, in Matthew 16:2–3: "When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring."
It is real weather, not folklore, where the wind runs west to east. A red sunset means the setting sun is lighting dry, dusty air to the west, so tomorrow is clear. A red sunrise means the rising sun is lighting the underside of cloud arriving from the west, so rain and wind are on their way. Near the equator, where half the cities on this site sit, the sky says no such thing. The rhyme on Wikipedia.