News•September 5, 2014
Picture This: Rainbows, Rainbows & More Rainbows
We can’t seem to go a week without a storm producing one amazing photo of a rainbow or another, be they of the single, double or triple variety. This week was no exception, as you will see below, with three stunning shots. Of course, plenty of other weather phenomena produced wow-worthy images of their own. There’s always something amazing to see up in the sky.
Wow, What a Rainbow
Weather photographer Brian Miner snapped our first rainbow shot of the week, and it’s a truly outstanding one. In it, the arc of the rainbow stretches across a verdant field behind a squall line in Kansas. Miner saw the rainbow after he had moved to the back of the lines of storms to avoid hail. He backed into a driveway for a barn, set up his camera, wrapping it in a rain poncho, and then sat under the hatch of his SUV, he told Climate Central. Serendipitously, at the moment Miner took the photo, lightning — which he said was everywhere in the area — shot out from the storm clouds, almost appearing to emanate from the rainbow itself. Truly awesome.
Weather photographer Brian Miner snapped this image in Kansas after a squall line blew through but while it was still producing lightning.
Click image to enlarge. Credit: Brian Miner
Capital Sunrise
The next photo also has plenty of wonderful color, in the form of bright pink skies over the nation’s capital at sunrise.
The reds and oranges that can color the skies at sunset and sunrise are the result of the way air particles scatter incoming light from the sun. During the day, those particles preferentially scatter light toward the blue-violet end of the spectrum, which is why the daytime sky appears blue. But at the beginning and end of the day, those solar rays have a longer path to travel through the atmosphere, and those blues and violets are scattered out, allowing the reds at the other end of the light spectrum through.
When clouds are in the sky at sunset and sunrise, they can enhance the spectacle, acting like projector screens for the colors to fall on.
Incredible pink sky with this early morning sunrise via @hbwx: @uscapitol under stunning early morning color pic.twitter.com/AyckMTbVd5
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) September 3, 2014
Lone Star State Sunset
Sunset in Amarillo, Texas, created another beautiful scene as the rays backlit a microburst over the flat landscape.
A microburst is a small-scale column of rapidly sinking air in a thunderstorm, generally less than 2.5 miles wide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The air can descend so quickly that wind speeds can reach 150 mph, NOAA says, posing a threat to structures on the ground, as well as aircraft.
Tardy kudos to a great photo Tue. from @chasinjason. MT @NWSAmarillo#Microburst w/ the Amarillo storm at sunset. pic.twitter.com/qdkSHxNSgk
— Jonathan Erdman (@wxjerdman) September 3, 2014
No End of Rainbows
Circling back to where we began this post, rainbows also appeared over landscapes that are beautiful in their own right: Niagara Falls and Yellowstone National Park.
The rainbow at Niagara didn’t form from the leftover droplets of a storm cloud, but from the mist of the falls themselves. Such rainbows — fallbows? — can regularly be seen at the site, according to Canada’s Niagara Parks.
@spann Rainbow over Niagara Falls yesterday! pic.twitter.com/6bmNjIB73d
— Barbara Wood (@Bama_Barb) September 2, 2014
Meanwhile, at Yellowstone Lake, a rainbow appeared to shoot straight out of the ground, though of course it didn’t. You can never get to the end of the rainbow because the phenomenon exists due to a combination of the sun’s angle to the drops of water refracting its light and the distance between the rainbow and observer.
Morning snapshot: a rainbow lights the way for paddlers leaving the southeast arm of Yellowstone Lake. pic.twitter.com/Gz5Wh7f4Yn
— YellowstoneNPS (@YellowstoneNPS) September 4, 2014