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Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,739
Registered: ‎05-19-2012

So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

As I was driving home yesterday, I looked up into a lovely blue sky streaked with many clouds with unusual shapes.  And then I saw this!

 

image.png

 

Never before had I seen a celestial prism with this presentation.  Rainbows yes, but this -- no.  Were any of you lucky enough to spot it yesterday, if you are in and around the D.C. Metro area?  Perhaps it showed up in southeastern Pennsylvania, too.

 

Here's the explanation:

 

 

They were spotted high over Frederick and Great Falls and in Loudoun County — brilliant streaks of violet, chartreuse, yellow and orange in the afternoon sky.

Flanking high, wispy clouds, they looked like fiery rainbows, but there was no rain.

They were actually an atmospheric optical phenomenon known as circumhorizon arcs.

Common in the United States, these arcs form when rays of sun intercept the ice crystals in the sky (usually in cirrus clouds) at just the right angle to refract or bend the sunlight into the colors of a prism.

The website Atmospheric Optics describes the colors as “purer than those of the rainbow.” It explains they’re most likely to occur when the sun is high in the sky (above 58 degrees) in the mid-latitudes between noon and 2 p.m.

And, indeed, photos from our readers on social media came in right around this time.

Sometimes these arcs are called fire rainbows. But the Atmospheric Optics site says “the halo is not a rainbow and has nothing to do with fire.”

Find several photos of the phenomenon below …

 
 
Adam Van Grack@WhitewaterAtty
 

Beautiful Cloud #Rainbow or Cloud Iridescence over the #PotomacRiver right now! @capitalweather

 
See Adam Van Grack's other Tweets
 
 
 

 

 

 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,240
Registered: ‎10-14-2016

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

Beautiful....thanks for sharing.

Super Contributor
Posts: 269
Registered: ‎05-27-2016

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

I live in west central Florida and I saw somethng like this only once - but it was incredible!!!

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Honored Contributor
Posts: 32,486
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

Thanks for posting this!  It is beautiful!  I live in Oklahoma where the sky is huge and the weather is wild and I see the oddest and scariest and most beautiful clouds!  We see all sorts of things here!  LOL!!!  I have seen that effect and it is indeed beautiful!  

 

I love to look at clouds!  You can see faces and animals and all sorts of things, and then in the next minute the clouds look like something else!  Nature is wonderful! 

Regular Contributor
Posts: 185
Registered: ‎10-16-2011

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

I am always looking at the clouds - my "angels" ( Mom & Dad)  know just when I need them the most and one or both magically appear. Or so I believe.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,739
Registered: ‎05-19-2012

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

[ Edited ]

bridal_diva,

 

I have the same belief (hope) that there are loved ones and signs in the clouds.  Sometimes, an image I see is amazingly what I need to "see" at that moment.  

 

Naive as it sounds, when I first saw this yesterday as I drove home from an appointment, I thought it was a "sign" and thought that I was alone in being excited over it.  In the wee hours of the morning I looked at my online Washington Post and read the coverage that I posted in my original post.  I was not alone in my excitement.  That felt good, I must admit.

 

Somehow, I think of this sight as a sign of nothing but goodness, hope and beauty.  And who doesn't want to see that?  It was a kiss from heaven

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,739
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

What a rare gift. I have seen the Northern Lights a couple times, and stayed up all night to watch them

 

Nature is astounding

Super Contributor
Posts: 269
Registered: ‎10-17-2018

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home

Yes I saw it too, it's BEAUTIFUL!!

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,183
Registered: ‎05-08-2016

Re: So Beautiful! I Saw This Phenomenal Sight Yesterday Driving Home


@cherry wrote:

What a rare gift. I have seen the Northern Lights a couple times, and stayed up all night to watch them

 

Nature is astounding


I would LOVE to see the Northern Lights. What a sight it must be! It's on my bucket list.