Rainbow Colors In The Sky

I love late-day thunder and lightning storms, not only because watching (and photographing) lightning is a rush, but under the right conditions the dark clouds make a perfect backdrop for any rainbows that appear as the storm subsides.  As a kid, I was captivated by the biblical story of how the “first” rainbow formed after the Great Flood, forever signifying a brighter future ahead. That’s why the sight of one gives me a sense of peace and awe–plus a confidence that things will get better no matter how challenging the “storm” in my life appears.

Even pictures of rainbows can help to brighten a gloomy day or lift sunken spirits, which is why I’m sharing my favorite rainbow shots in the portfolio below as well as this poem.

AT RAINBOW’S END

Turn your back to the sun, as the rain turns to spray,

And when timing is right, you’ll catch it at play.

All the colors in view are the cords to its song,

With a tempo that curves, sometimes short, sometimes long.


Only Nature provides such a wonderful sight,

That brings peace, serenity, and hope back to life.

As you watch its vibrato and harmonies flow,

Feel your spirits enhanced by the dancing rainbow.


At the ends of the rainbow, some seek pots of gold,

But that’s not what it brings, if truth be told.

For the sign of the rainbow reduces our fear,

and brings hope that a kindred soul will appear

Michael J. McNamara May 19, 2020

Over time, I’ve learned to recognize the conditions that help to form a rainbow, often hours in advance (See TIPS below) which helps to explain why I find, photograph, and film more than a dozen rainbows and double-rainbows every year.  Living in the Hudson Valley and having access to some great scenery doesn’t hurt either (although a rainbow can add a touch of elegance to a garbage dump.) Two of my favorite locations include Phillips Farm on Rt.82 in Hopewell Junction, NY, (photo above) and Fishkill Farms just South of Rt.84 in Hopewell Junction. Both have large open farm fields that can be viewed from the road facing East. I’ve actually captured five double rainbows at Phillips Farm and two at Fishkill Farms in the last decade!

STAND BY for photos.: GALLERY UPDATE IN PROGRESS.

TIPS ON HOW TO FIND A RAINBOW:

Just like “there’s a silver lining to every cloud” (a great philosophy to live by) rainbows are more common than most people think. But if you don’t know where to look, it’s easy to miss them or pass right under them. Since they are optical phenomena, they follow certain rules and don’t randomly appear in the sky. First, you need moisture in the air and either late-day or early morning sunlight. For any rainbow, the center of the circle formed by its arc (imagine extending the part you see) is exactly where the shadow of your head will be found. So when the sun starts to come out near the end of a rain shower, turn in the direction of your shadow and look around. (PS: If enough clouds block the sun, a rainbow won’t form.) The closer the sun is to the horizon behind you, the higher the rainbow will appear in the sky. Best times to see one? For several hours before and up to sunset, or in the morning for several hours after sunrise.

Rainbows don’t always follow those simple rules.  Some are formed in the spray surrounding a waterfall–but the sun has to be behind you when facing the waterfall or its spray.  If you’re really lucky, and happen to be flying over a rainstorm in the middle of the day, you can even catch sight of a full circle rainbow between you and the ground (as I once did while flying in a Coast Guard helicopter near Pensacola, FLA. In that case, the helicopter’s shadow was directly below in the center of the rainbow circle.

Other Rainbow Color In The Sky:

While rainbows are the most common type of weather-related phenomena creating a color spectrum in the sky, three others exist. The most common is the Sun Devil. It’s formed by sunlight refracting through fine ice crystals in thin mid-level clouds, at about 45-degrees to the left or right of the setting sun.

The other two–iridescent clouds and the Circumzenithial Arc  are very rare phenomena. Fortunately, the lower Hudson Valley of NY State where I live gets more than its share of iridescent clouds in the early Spring and late Fall. You just have to be looking up in order to see them. Like Sun Devils, the colors formed in these clouds are also caused by the sunlight passing through very thin layers of high-altitude ice crystals at sharp angles. However, the colors are usually more pastel and form “mother-of-pearl” patterns.

For me, the rarest of all is the “upside-down rainbow” that can form directly overhead during certain times of the year when conditions are just right.  It’s technically called a Circumzenithial Arc (or CZA for short), and the first and clearest one of the three that I’ve ever seen formed directly overhead (at the sky zenith, thereby the name) in barely visible high-altitude clouds against a blue sky. It appeared just prior to an outdoor Sting concert I attended in Bethel Woods, NY in 2017. (That’s the same location that hosted the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969.) I took pictures and 4K video of it, and everyone with me saw it–so I’m still fairly certain it wasn’t caused by residual LSD in the drinking water. 🙂 It occured about an hour before sunset, and there were also Sun Devils located to both sides of the setting sun. However, rather than following the same virtual curve of a circle around the sun as the Sun Devils, or having a virtual center where your shadow lands as with a regular rainbow, the CZA formed only a half circle,  with ends pointing in the opposite direction of a traditional rainbow (like a smile). Here’s a link to a movie that shows you what I’m talking about, and proves I wasn’t hallucinating! LINK TO COME SOON!

So if you ever grow weary of seeing pictures of rainbows, or even a real rainbow after a storm (heaven forbid!), keep looking up and you may find inspiration from a fleeting CZA, iridescent cloud formation, or Sun Devil. If that doesn’t work, try howling at the full moon and perhaps you’ll spot a colorful corona around it! And I don’t mean virus.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. And ENJOY!