Why is the sky blue? That’s a question your children might ask you. Thankfully, a quick Google search will give you the answer.

The reason the sky is blue has to do with the way light is scattered through the atmosphere. According to NASA, “Sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered more than the other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.”

Notice the question we originally asked. We weren’t asking what color the sky is. We were asking why it is blue. It is common knowledge that the sky is blue. Unless it’s not.

Sometimes the sky is another color. At sunrise and sunset the sky can be a wide range of colors. At night, the sky is black. Not too long ago in China, the sky was red.

When the sky is an unusual color, it can be quite alarming. When residents of Zhoushan City in China looked up at the night sky on May 7, 2022, and saw a red sky, they were scared. They didn’t know why the sky was red. 

Fortunately, the red sky was not dangerous. In fact, the color of the sky once again had to do with the way light is scattered through the atmosphere, except this time the sky didn’t look blue.

Watch the video below to see this blood red sky for yourself and to learn why the sky looked red on this particular night according to the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau.

Have you ever been alarmed by the color of the sky? Would you be alarmed if you looked up and the sky was red? Does it surprise you that fishing boats could cause the color of the sky to change?