I tweeted yesterday how I saw this rather odd phenomena. So while it's not on topic for this blog, I did promise I'd put the picture here for those who were interested.I saw this at about 4.45pm directly above me in Godmanchester, near Huntingdon, Cambs.
Two odd things about this rainbow:
1. It was directly above my head; as in about the place the noon sun would be. I've never seen a rainbow there before. It wasn't around any bright light (such as the occasional rainbow effects you see around the moon).
2. Oh, and it was upside down. Rainbows, in my 42 years of experience, curve from the horizon upwards before bowing and coming back down again. This one was upside down; like a big smile!
Oh, yeah, it wasn't raining either, hadn't been all day.
My clever wife reckons I may have been seeing a refelection of a rainbow happening somewhere over my horizon. Anyone seen similar? Back to the usual stuff tomorrow - I promise!
I saw Paul Bradshaw's tweet to you about your "curious rainbow pic" and had to come and see what he meant.
ReplyDeleteWow!
It looks like what you saw was a Circumzenithal arc, a rare phenomenon formed under specific circumstances: the sun has to be low and you need a certain type of cloud. The 'rainbow' is created when the light shines through ice crystals in the cloud, high up in the atmosphere.
Very jealous!
The fact that you found this and are able to comment with such insight is exactly why I love social media - particularly the least silo'd kind - the humble blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
It's also in Metro this morning on page 3! Online version here
ReplyDelete