Rainbows: More Than Meets The Eye

Rainbows, these colorful displays that are seen after the heaviest of storms and the lightest mists are depicted in many legends and stories as the bringers of joy and happiness after even the worst disasters. Rainbows are created by water droplets suspended in the air through which light refracts but interestingly rainbows don’t just form in the signature arch that we usually think of. All rainbows actually form as a circle but Earth gets in the way of us seeing the entire circle. If you were to see a rainbow from a plane at a high enough altitude you would be able to see the entire circle. There are many different variations of rainbows that you can see, but here are a few kinds that happen more often. Circumhorizontal arcs appear as above rainbows and facing towards the sun as a reflection of the rainbow. These only happen during colder months as the second reverse rainbow is actually another rainbow formed by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Double rainbows are more common than we think, because all rainbows have two rainbows that form, but with double rainbows the light is double refracted through each water droplet with enough energy that we are able to see the second bow. The next time you see a double rainbow take a close look at the color patterns of the two bows as the second rainbow has the order of its colors reversed compared to the first, more pronounced rainbow. Another rainbow that is a bit more rare is the monochrome rainbow that only appear at sunset or sunrise where the blue and green wavelengths of light are blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere and create a very dramatic red rainbow that can paint the sky with a deep red hue for a few short minutes. Finally rainbows don’t just appear from sunlight as they can be created by strong moonlight as well creating a ghostly dim rainbow from showers that move out of the area during a full moon night. Rainbows are symbols of luck and peace as they appear even after the strongest storms to let us know that even after everything bad that happens there still is happiness and joy in the world. There are no major astrological events to report for the next week. As we head into the closing weeks of July it is going to be hot and humid with an average temperature around 100 degrees and a 20% chance of showers as we head into the weekend.

Thomas Borgstedte Jr. studies meteorology at Texas A&M.