Chicken Coop Bathed in a Beautiful Winter Sunset

It is still frigid outside.  My yoga instructor tried to tell me last night that pregnant ladies don't feel the cold - yeah right; she obviously doesn't have to go out to feed and water chickens at -35 degree C temperatures!

Even though it has been freezing outside lately, I have to admit the winter sunsets we've been having over the past week have been absolutely stunning.

This led me to wonder why winter sunsets are more vivid than at other times of the year.  

After some preliminary research, it seems that the answer lies in the fact that "blue light has a short wavelength, so it gets scattered easiest by air molecules, such as nitrogen and oxygen.  Longer wavelength lights - reds and oranges - are not scattered as much by air molecules.

During sunrise and sunset, light from the sun must pass through much more of our atmosphere before reaching our eyes, so it comes into contact with even more molecules in the air. Much of the blue light gets scattered away, making the reds and oranges more pronounced.

During this time of year, weather patterns allow for dry, clean Canadian air to sweep across [the] country, and more colours of the spectrum make it through to our eyes without getting scattered by particles in the air, producing brilliant sunsets and sunrises that can look red, orange, yellow or even pink." (The Weather Channel, 2012)

Somehow understanding the science behind it, makes these sunsets even more beautiful.  They are almost worth enduring these arctic temperatures...almost.

Source: The Weather Channel.  (2012).  Why Autumn Sunsets are So Vivid.  Accessed from: http://www.weather.com/news/autumn-sunsets-20121010 on January 25, 2013.