If I didn’t have someone walking with me who also witnessed this, I’d be hesitant to tell you – we saw the strangest rainbow this morning, visible from 9:30 am to almost 10:30 right overhead! Not only that, but it was backward (by that I mean that the arc was turned away from the sun). There was also a partial ring around the sun, but that isn’t so unusual. By the time I got home I tried to take a photo of it, but it was becoming very faint. Did anyone else happen to look up this morning and see this? It might have been there before 9:30, but I wasn’t outside then. Anyone have an idea what might have caused this?
Toni Sinclair,
Buckhorn
Replies: “Good chance you saw a form of an upper tangent arc or circumzenithal arc. Weird looking bows, but not by rain (ice crystals actually)and not bowed round, but arcs. Good sighting! Rick Stankiewicz
Circumzenital arc – Füssen, Germany Wikimedia
