Extreme weather can add to a dawn's beauty

Up to this point the sun will be rising later each day and setting earlier. While this in many ways is a little sad, especially when combined with chilling winds and damp wet weather, it means we have to make a more determined effort to go out and enjoy our natural environment. It does make experiencing what are to me the most spectacular times of day, dawn and dusk, far more convenient.

Dawn is a wonderful time of day, and I always like to take any opportunity I have to get out and enjoy the rising of the sun. There is a fresh welcoming nature to first light that always put me in a good mood. It is also a great time to see wildlife, as the nature reserves are usual quite free from disturbance from other people, meaning with a little stealth you can get really good close up views of some of our more secretive wildlife. As the light changes as the sun rises, you can have some fantastic light effects which can cast wonderful hues of colour across otherwise familiar landscapes, literally allowing you to see them in a different light.

Sometimes extreme weather can help add to a dawn’s beauty. Recently we had the menace of snow, which threatened but never materialised.

On one of these mornings I was out near Redstone Marsh in Stourport. The sun had yet to rise but there was enough light to see the sky was partially filled with dark mean-looking purple-grey clouds. To the east there was a gap under one of these clouds, that was changing from a bloody red into a golden orange.

As I watched, the first blast of golden sunlight tore above the horizon, further emphasising the terrible ominous nature of the dark clouds above. This was spectacular enough, but as I turned my back on this scene my breath was taken away by the view that greeted me.

The largest boldest rainbow I had ever seen was arcing its way through the dawn sky. It beauty and brightness contrasted with the darkness and menace of the clouds behind. Unfortunately the spectacle did not last long but its beauty will stay with me for many a year.

The last few weeks I have been walking at dusk on Burlish Top between Kidderminster and Stourport. Like its name suggests, this reserve is indeed a top and offers some great views.

You can see Clent Hills to the east, Malvern Hills to the south, Clee Hills to the west and Habberley Valley to the north. Given such good uninterrupted views it is not surprising that a dusk walk is frequently rewarded with some fantastic sunsets. Earlier this month these wonderful golden and some time red skies, have been made all the more beautiful as with the gradual fading of the light the skies colours begin to darken and the planets of Jupiter and Venus can be seen hanging in the eastern sky in close proximity to each other, bringing a brilliant focus to the washes of evening colours.

All these atmospheric colour effects are produced from reflections and refractions of light within in water droplets and vapour in the sky. But to me the science of how these phenomenon come into existence some how detracts from their majesty and sometime we need to put a scientific minds aside and just stare in wonder at the beauty of the world in which we live.