PHOTO SOURCE: NEWSUNITED
An astonishing fire rainbow was spotted in South Carolina’s skies on Sunday evening. After the image spread like wildfire on social media, the experts analyzed the image to determine that the photographed phenomenon is an example of “iridescent clouds”. The fire rainbow disappeared after an hour of visibility.
HOW IT HAPPENED
According to ZMEScience, the proper phrase of the phenomenon is circumhorizontal arc. An “ice halo formed by ice crystals”, the “fire rainbow” occurs in the atmosphere’s cirrus clouds. The website also says that they occur more often in the United States in than in northern or central Europe. The main factors that determine their appearance are altitude and angle.
“To produce the rainbow colors the sun’s rays must enter the ice crystals at a precise angle to give the prism effect of the color spectrum,” meteorologist Justin Lock said to WCSC-TV.
For a fire rainbow, Lock said, the sun must be positioned at exactly a 58 degree altitude over the horizon. To occur, a rainbow requires reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water. The fire rainbow does show up in the sky as often as other rainbows would, due to the specificity of the conditions required to produce it. “Again, it has to do with getting the precise angle,” Lock added.
You can check out more photos of the fire rainbow courtesy of Live5News here.
REACTIONS TO THE FIRE RAINBOW
On Instagram and Twitter, people who saw the fire rainbow reacted with excitement and posted the image. As USA Today pointed out, one person on Twitter compared the stunning display to an angel’s wings. Another said it was a “multi-colored angel hovering overhead.” According to WCSC-TV, one viewer, Tracey Smith, touchingly said that the photo reminded her of a recently deceased loved one.
OTHER UNIQUE RAINBOWS
The fire rainbow isn’t the only unique rainbow. As Soo Kim writes at the Telegraph, a double rainbow spotted above Yosemite National Park made its observer joyfully cry in a video that went viral in 2010. In 2011, two quadruple rainbows were captured on film in Germany. And just a few months ago, a woman waiting at a Long Island Rail Road station tweeted a photo of the same phenomenon.
