Purple rain refers to when skies take on a purple or reddish-purple appearance either before or after a hurricane. So it actually has less to do with rain and more to do with sky color, but let’s accept that the term “purple rain” has a nicer ring to it than “purple skies,” especially if you love Prince as much as I do! I can hear those amazing guitar notes in my head right now…..sigh!Alas, purple rain has not been documented with every hurricane, but it was reported after Hurricane Michael in October 2018 and after Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and purple skies were also photographed before the landfall of Hurricane Delta in 2020. More recently, the skies turned purple in Florida during Hurricane Milton in 2024.However, it’s important to note that the phenomenon of purple rain doesn’t just take place due to hurricanes, but the low-hanging clouds and a higher concentration of water vapor from tropical systems definitely help to create the right atmospheric conditions. When that gets combined with the sun at a low angle, the sun’s light scatters more violet and blue wavelengths in different directions and makes the purple and rosy colors more noticeable to our eyes.While we lost The Purple One (RIP Prince) too soon, the weather phenomenon of purple rain lives on. And so, apparently, does a cocktail named after it.
