and please use their services
How far away is the horizon?
- Thread starter AJQS
- Start date
- Messages
- 9,372
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I presume you are looking west from your place. Out to sea? I've done a lot of sunset shots looking over the Irish Sea. There are very few days when the horizon is totally clear of cloud. For some inexplicable reason there always seems to be a band of cloud that magically appears the nearer the sun gets to setting. Damned frustrating.
- Messages
- 7,571
- Name
- Ken
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Not an easy answer. A rough guide is about 20 to 40 miles (with the caveats that Chris gave, above), but weather forecasting (at the moment) cannot give you an accurate distance.
Radar may show clouds but not the density/height/pattern/accurate distance so that you can judge the effect they will have on pleasing sunsets.
Radar may show clouds but not the density/height/pattern/accurate distance so that you can judge the effect they will have on pleasing sunsets.
Dist_miles approx= sqrt(1.5 x height_feet)
So if you're eyes are six foot above sea level the horizon is three miles away.
As for clouds - if they're at 1000 feet, their horizon is 38 miles. So clouds at 1000 feet situated 41 miles away will look as if they're touching the horizon. (With no refraction)
So if you're eyes are six foot above sea level the horizon is three miles away.
As for clouds - if they're at 1000 feet, their horizon is 38 miles. So clouds at 1000 feet situated 41 miles away will look as if they're touching the horizon. (With no refraction)
- Messages
- 1,412
- Edit My Images
- Yes
It depends on how high the clouds are and just remember that sometimes it is that horrible haze that is thousands of feet up.
A 5 ft 8 person sees the horizon at about 3 miles distance without refraction,further over water as it is cold. 100 foot up makes horizon about 22 miles away.
To get all cloud off the horizon you need a weather map with fried eggs all over the UK and sea (not often). But you do get days where the sun drops below the cloud above the horizon.
Whitby Abbey. The sun dropped below the clouds in the distance. As it does often.
A 5 ft 8 person sees the horizon at about 3 miles distance without refraction,further over water as it is cold. 100 foot up makes horizon about 22 miles away.
To get all cloud off the horizon you need a weather map with fried eggs all over the UK and sea (not often). But you do get days where the sun drops below the cloud above the horizon.
Whitby Abbey. The sun dropped below the clouds in the distance. As it does often.
Last edited:
Kodiak Qc
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 20,285
- Name
- French Canadian living in Europe since 1989!
- Edit My Images
- Yes
At the end of a hot day, Nature and humans generated
tons of particles and humidity that was elevated and
kept suspended in the air by convection until the night.
Then, the cool air will permit the fall and deposit of the
dust.
Dusk and dawn have different charms where basically
only the suspended material in the atmosphere makes
the difference. Clear, crisp sunrises or diffused colour
rich sunsets; cloud formations will add their own magic
into the scenes.
- Messages
- 2,247
- Name
- Brian
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Funny - I thought that only happened to me!
- Messages
- 11,800
- Name
- Jeremy Moore
- Edit My Images
- No
Me too. Quite often you can see the tops of big cumulus clouds which i presume have built up over the Irish Mountains, probably the Wicklows south of Dublin, or the Mourne mountains, further north but lower.
The cirrus clouds we see (if we're lucky) way at west may be much further away because they are much higher - 30,000 feet or more. but they probably wouldn't appear on cloud cover maps as they are too thin.
- Messages
- 1,369
- Name
- Chris
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Me too. I note that from Calton Hill in Edinburgh, a popular site for sunset watching, 101 metres high, on a very clear day Ben Lawers is visible on the horizon, 57 miles away. So a band of cloud on the horizon which can be seen behind Ben Lawers, which I've photographed a few times, must be quite a bit further away than Ben Lawers. On the other hand, most often Ben Lawers can't be seen because there is low cloud in front of it, or on top of it, or the atmosphere is simply too hazy to see that far.
- Messages
- 450
- Edit My Images
- Yes
It depends how high the clouds are really...
Noctilucent clouds which can be up to 80KM above the surface would be around 1000km away
Cummulonibus clouds which reach up to 16km above the ground can be seen from 450km away
Cummulus clouds which are normally below 2k can be seen from 160km away...
Noctilucent clouds which can be up to 80KM above the surface would be around 1000km away
Cummulonibus clouds which reach up to 16km above the ground can be seen from 450km away
Cummulus clouds which are normally below 2k can be seen from 160km away...