Last night the sky over Garapan filled with dusty purple clouds that washed the streets with a paintbox hue unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was as if the air itself had grabbed hold of one end of the spectrum and squeezed out this royal shade.

backstage at a sunset

This strange sky is thanks to a very large weather system, Typhoon Juan (A.K.A. Typhoon Megi). It passed us by but rolled right over the Philippines and now it’s grinding toward Southern China. Thankfully here on Saipan we saw only a little eddy thrown off by the main storm. We had dark skies yesterday, some rain, a little thunder and lightning, and these magical purple clouds.