Your So Mean Winter Skies Look Green Again
The colors of the setting sun in Long Beach on January. 27 just before a winter tempest blew in.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Sunrises and sunsets really are improve in winter. Information technology's not unusual to see amazing pinkish, orangish and royal hues in the sky as the sun is rising or setting in January and February. Equally the COVID-19 pandemic has kept most of the states close to abode, the daily bursts of color offer prophylactic bets to get outside and spotter the light bear witness.
Stephen LaDochy, who teaches meteorology and climatology at Cal State Los Angeles, chalks up the colors to atmospheric eyes. "It'south different types of scattering, reflection and refraction of light," he said. Translation: Lite is fabricated up of different colors, each with its own range of wavelengths. Blue and green light waves are shorter, which means they bounce and scatter more easily. At sunset, those colors get filtered out, leaving longer wavelengths of reds and oranges that tin brand your heart melt.
A surfer is silhouetted against a setting sun in Hermosa Beach on Jan. 12.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
But there'south something else going on in winter. Sunsets become more vivid because of low humidity and cleaner air, especially later on information technology rains. That means in that location are fewer particulates to wash out colors and create hazy sunsets, which are more typical in summer. Besides, the Earth spins closer to the sunday in winter, and the "angle the sun takes setting makes sunset colors last a flake longer," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologist Stephen Corfidi told Voice.
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The final ingredient: clouds, which reflect the stunning hues dorsum at us. "Clouds make it much more brilliant," LaDochy says. "They deed like a [viewing] screen."
The ascension sun lights up palm trees in Azusa on January. 3.
(Raul Roa/Times Customs News)
I noticed the colors terminal year while driving w in San Pedro late in the afternoon on New year's Day. I watched thick puffs of clouds overhead churn from periwinkle blueish to flaming orangey pink in what seemed like seconds.
Ii photos evidence the shift of colors in a sunset on New Yr'south Twenty-four hour period 2020, as seen in San Pedro.
(Mary Forgione / Los Angeles Times)
When information technology comes to good places to watch the dominicus sink or ascension, any beach or high signal will do. Just brand sure you're in a spot with a broad view of the horizon. My picks for places that offer space to spread out include:
- Palisades Park in Santa Monica, side by side to the famed Santa Monica Pier, which parallels Body of water Artery and offers wide-angle views of the embankment below.
- Point Fermin Park at 807 Paseo Del Mar in San Pedro affords cliffside views of the ocean, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island.
- Charmlee Wilderness Park at 2577 Encinal Canyon Road in Malibu was made for dusk viewing. It's high atop ocean bluffs and even has some benches pointed at the horizon.
- Parker Mesa Overlook in Topanga Country Park also offers wide-angle panoramas of the Malibu declension. It's best for sunsets. Hike in most 3 miles 1 mode (there are multiple means to go at that place) to arrive at the overlook in time for the dominicus to set.
- Stuck in the city? Head up to the Griffith Observatory at 2800 East. Observatory Route for a long view of the L.A. Bowl. If you have time and desire a college bespeak, take the Charlie Turner Trail off the parking lot up to Mt. Hollywood (ane,625 feet in elevation). It's almost a mile and a half each style. This is the i place that may be a bit more than crowded than the others.
What happens to the low-cal on rainy days? "Rain and clouds ... block sunlight, just likewise produce rainbows, if the sun peeks out behind your back equally you lot look at refracted light through raindrops," LaDochy said. "Oftentimes the larger droplets produce the brighter rainbow colors."
Hither are tips on how to go the most out of wintertime sunset and sunrise viewing.
Exist on time. Shorter days mean early on sunsets, and you don't desire to miss the angelic evidence. Check out timeanddate.com for when the sun will set in your surface area. Plan to be in place about a half-hour earlier to sentry the show.
The setting sun explodes with color behind a runner in Long Beach.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Need inspiration? Heed to writer John Green ("The Fault in Our Stars," "Turtles All the Way Down") explain why sunsets should e'er spark awe in his podcast "Capacity for Wonder and Sunsets," an episode of "The Anthropocene Reviewed" (bit.ly/sunsetawe).
Updates
2:37 p.m. Feb. ii, 2021: Photographs updated throughout.
The essential weekly guide to enjoying the outdoors in Southern California. Insider tips on the best of our beaches, trails, parks, deserts, forests and mountains.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Source: https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-01-10/southern-california-spectacular-winter-sunsets
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