(KMID/KPEJ)- No matter if you are new to Texas, or have lived here your entire life, you have likely noticed the amazing sunsets that happen so often.

This is no coincidence. Most aspects of the colors and patterns in a Texas sunset have some reason behind them.

You may notice that Texas has brighter and more intense colored sunset than other parts of the country. This is mainly due to the drier air that Texas tends to have. With dry air comes more vivid colors, and more of them.

While places with more water vapor in the air will have more watered-down colors, almost pastel looking colors. 

The distance light travels also play a role in these colors. When the sun sets, the light has to travel further to get through the atmosphere, which means more blue light gets scattered by the particles in the air, leaving those red and orange colors to fill in much of the sky.

Add in the dust, smoke, smog, and increased number of tiny aerosol particles that are common in many parts of Texas, and you get colors that are scattered in the way that they are in Texas.

The clouds add a whole other layer of interest, as the mid to high level clouds intercept the red and orange lights, with longer wavelengths, as the sun sets. This is why the clouds are often colored so differently than the rest of the surrounding sky.

While the time for sunset changes throughout the year, most notably with daylight saving time, you can usually expect the sun to set sometime between 5pm and 8pm.

Around the spring time, the sun usually sets sometime between 7pm and 8pm.