Red in the Morning, Basement Warning?
For the past week, rain has been in the forecast for this afternoon. Nonetheless, I nodded and pointed out the pink sky to my husband as we left for our respective offices this morning. “Rain,” I said, which is only funny because he said the same thing to me a few months ago and I looked at him like he was crazy until he explained that a pink or red sky at night is a sign of good weather the next day, but the same sky in the morning is a sign of rain.
A lot of the things he says sound made up, so I looked into it, and sure enough there’s an adage or two. Depending on whether you’re a sailor or a shepherd, or another two syllable outdoor professional, you may have heard it.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning.
Folklore is great, but I also appreciate science, so I looked further into it. And by that, I mean Wikipedia, because I am on the early side of millennials so I know how to do research sans internet but I also would rather not.
Science Time!
The theory is that, when the sky is reddish in the morning, it’s because light from the east is coming through as the sun rises and hitting the underside of high-moisture clouds. And logic says that, since weather (usually) moves west to east, there will be more clouds behind the ones in view.
It doesn’t quite make sense to me either, but it’s in the Bible and Shakespeare and it’s proven true every time I’ve seen a red sky, so I tend to trust it.
But what does this have to do with you? Or your home?
I have water in the basement of my rental townhouse and, until we finally settled on the plan of “move everything into the middle of the room and hope,” without fail there would be water on days it rained after a pink sky.
What should be a pretty background for your morning commute and the knowledge that your lawn is going to get a drink today can become something foreboding. You’re finally getting out of garbage weather season in Michigan where the sky is one of three shades of gray every day, only to get stressed out by the colors in it?
Basement flooding issues can be all consuming. They take your mental energy, physical labor, and what little free time you may have in an otherwise busy week. You’re either bailing water or reorganizing your stuff so it doesn’t get affected or mentally going through your budget to figure out if you can afford to fix the problem.
But can you afford not to? Now that you’ve learned what a pink sky means (if you didn’t know already), are you going to let yourself hate it?
Life comes fast, and priorities are always shifting. But it was a wet winter, and it’s shaping up to be a wetter spring. Don’t spend it angry at the sky.
We can design a system that will not only get your basement dry, it will keep it dry. Forever. Take back your time, your energy, and your sunrises.
