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weather related question

Discussion

5 replies
Posted by Michael Hackett on November 23, 2011 at 7:21 PM
weather related question
I saw this strange sky when I got home tonight and was wondering if it's a strange type of rainbow and what causes it.
Posted by Stan Rose on November 23, 2011 at 9:58 PM
Not a rainbow--cloud iridescence caused by diffraction of the light by ice crystals in the clouds. A nice example, too!
Posted by Michael Hackett on November 23, 2011 at 10:58 PM
Thanks Stan, I figured you would know.
Posted by Richard Olsen on November 23, 2011 at 11:14 PM
I saw this several times going west on I70 this afternoon and was wondering what caused it...pretty cool looking.
Thanks Stan!
Posted by Stephen Trainor on November 24, 2011 at 12:00 PM
This is great site for explaining all those atmospheric oddities: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/irid1.htm. Not sure if this is precisely the correct article corresponding to what Stan described, but it's a decent departure point for the curious...
Posted by Scott Fricke on November 26, 2011 at 11:11 AM
There were some amazing iridescent clouds on the back edge of the front that came through on Wednesday, some of the best I've seen, but alas it occurred during the 5% of the time I don't have a camera with me.