MINNEAPOLIS — If you looked out your window on Tuesday night, you couldn't miss the dramatic oranges and reds that colored the evening's sunset.
But why did the sky turn such a striking hue?
According to KARE 11 weatherman Guy Brown, those colors were amplified by clouds from storms that swept through the southern part of Minnesota earlier in the day.
If you look up to the sky around noon on any given day, you can see the sun almost directly above you. The sun's angle, relative to the Earth, is direct and produces shorter wavelengths of light. The naked eye sees those shorter wavelengths as blue and white light.
As the sun gets closer to the horizon, it emits longer wavelengths of light that were caught and scattered by lingering clouds high in the sky. These wavelengths have farther to travel to reach your eyes, and when they arrive, we see them as reds and oranges.
So the angle of the sun and the leftover clouds came together to put on an incredible light show.
YOUR PHOTOS: Orange-hued sunsets
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