Strange rainbow tonight over the Broads

[SteveA]

I was out looking to take a few sunset pictures and look what I found.. no rain, ( at least where I was in Gilford).

6632

[Resident 2B]

Great shot!

Looks like a virga-bow. The rain is evaporating before it reaches the ground or the water.

R2B

[Lakegeezer]

For a while, there was a double rainbow, with the second appearing as a reflection of the first. The colors were in reverse order. You can sort of see it in the second picture. The first picture is at the other end of the rainbow, coming down near the Castle in the Clouds.

[upthesaukee]

For a while, there was a double rainbow, with the second appearing as a reflection of the first. The colors were in reverse order.

Seems I read or heard on TV that this is normal with a double rainbow. The colors reverse in the second one and I can't remember why.

[SteveA]

LG.. to the naked eye I could barely see the second rainbow, very faintly.. you can almost see it forming on these two pictures. I tried to "find" them with photoshop tools.. but still not very clear in the pictures.

6633

This was taken from a different angle on Long Beach at LSP. The others were from Big Pier.

6634

[upthesaukee]

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia...a link to the whole article follows.

Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander%27s_band), after Alexander of Aphrodisias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Aphrodisias) who first described it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_rainbow#Variations

[webmaster]

The WeirsCAM caught this unusual rainbow at 6:11 tonight:

[DickR]

I saw that rainbow, but from Long Island. I was stunned by the color and brilliance of the show. It was so bright I almost called the fire department to go put it out.