Why Does the Sky Look Hazy at Sunrise?

Imagine the sky is a giant blue blanket made of tiny invisible threads. When the sun sits high in the middle of the day, its light goes straight through these threads to you. Most of the blue gets caught and bounced around, so you see lots of blue all over.

But when the sun goes down or comes up, it has to take a very long walk through the sky blanket to reach your eyes. It travels through more air than usual. This extra trip catches almost all the tiny blue threads and shakes them loose as they go by.

The big red and orange threads are stronger and do not get caught as easily. They keep walking straight until they hit your eyes. That is why the horizon looks warm and fuzzy with yellow, orange, and pink colors while the sky above stays a lighter shade.