Today I stepped outside and was greeted with this image just after the clouds parted. Fortunately I had my camera ready to go. This view is at the Sierra Nevada foothills looking Northeast over Bidwell Ranch, CA. A light mist was falling and the sun was behind me. I had a wide view of the horizon. Perfect rainbow conditions enabled me to catch this rare full arc
This is a composite image of two photos, using panorama stitching software. There’s hint of a double rainbow too, see photos below.
Interesting thing about this property, it was purchased by the City of Chico and the local environmentalists consider it “sacred ground”, and have managed to convince the city to make it off limits and marked as “no tresspassing”. Look but don’t touch.
Here’s a photo from my weather station that shows the rainbow:
And here’s a better photo of the double rainbow:
Nice photo.
I live on the South Coast of England. Perfect arcs and double rainbows out at sea are common (when we have rainbows that is)
Presumably that has somehing to do with our high humidity as a country and the additional mosisture from the sea?
tonyb
Happy New Year but I must correct the science. The consensus (we email each other a lot) agrees that rainbows are anthropogenic and that upon contact with terra firma a rainbow produces a hole in the ground due to the strength of its beams which are equivalent to industrial cutting lasers. We have passed our research on to the UN to warn them about the dangers of rainbows.
Anthony, you will have to post it here, as you pic is better than this one:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5894
And this?
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5181
But I do like these shots of clouds:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5898
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5903
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5756
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=5481
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/index.php?showimage=4286
And this is my favourite – Michelin Man stuck in the clouds.
http://www.pbase.com/cindyd/image/75991891
.
David L. Hagen (20:05:37)
Round here the sea level rises 20 feet in one day, twice in fact, don’t tell Al.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
Happy New Year Anthony. That is a great shot!
Double rainbows are beautiful! With our often low Sun they are not too uncommon over here, like in this shot from my home
http://arnholm.org/astro/atmosphere/rainbows/double_rainbow_20040713.html
Observe that the second, fainter rainbow is inverted.
Friends:
Just a tip. Those who want good pictures of rainbows should commission a photographer here in Cornwall (extreme SW UK) where the climate is warm and wet so rainbows frequently occur.
Complete and double rainbows are common in Spring and Autumn here. When I first moved to Cornwall I soon saw a complete rainbow with a complete partner rainbow. I was so excited that I went to tell others who lived near-by but they failed to understand my excitement and did not bother to come out to see such a common event.
I most recently looked up to see one on 16 December 2009.
But please do not ask me for photographs because I am a useless photographer.
Richard
From: MartinGAtkins
To: Anthony Watts
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in my own data to hide the decline.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt74/MartinGAtkins/hidedecline.png
The further north you go, the lower the angle of the sun tends to be, and the more rainbows you are likely to see, until you get so far north that rain is rare. In the tropics the sun is often too high, and the peak of a rainbow would be below the horizon. Travelling in Scotland in the late summer, however, you many see several rainbows in a single day.
If you look hard enough, bet you can justsee both pots of gold from your house,
Wow – pre-morning coffee – really screwed that up 🙁 For the record:
“If you look hard enough, bet you can just see both pots of gold from your house.” Yikes.
Last summer while driving home from Ft. Collins area to Denver on I-25, we witnessed a full double rainbow. It was right after an afternoon rain burst and the sun light was spilling over the Rocky Mountains and being swallowed up by the dark grey clouds of the thunderheads.
The double bow was nicely highlighted by the dark background.
I saw one guy pulled over taking pictures. I was extremely jealous, as I had left my camera at home.
The scene repeated itself several times down the highway. Must have been at least twenty miles of double rainbows.
I have also come across ‘Alexander’s Dark Space’ for the darker band between the two. No-one has yet commented on the other feature of double rainbows; that the colors are in reverse order in the outer bow. The dark space is because light is ‘robbed’ from the interspace to produce the two.
wakeupmaggy (21:07:33) : I believe from past discussions you live south of McClure Pass, I live 5 miles north of Carbondale, CO. We have had a nasty December, but it is much worse than any in the past twenty years I’ve lived here. Last, and previous winters were milder so far, and generally, you area is warmer than mine for a given altitude. I’m at 6600′, and had -14°, -15° and -17°F for the coldest mornings, several at 0° to-10°, and only one day that it got above 32° for a high. Below zero mornings in December have been rare, and a few days in the 40s is normal. A rancher in her 70s here has no memory of a winter like this one.
To get on topic, here is a double rainbow I caught here in 2006, I was too close to get it all in a single shot, and blended eight to make this. It was within 1 mile, in the valley between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs looking west.
http://i46.tinypic.com/54cdwl.jpg
photon without a Higgs (21:20:40) :
Who is the whistler blower that changed the global warming world!?
Although we have an FOI act here in UK, we also have a whistleblower protection act as well. But it never works because the Gov will always claim that National Security is at stake. After all, all those 100 year old temperatures are very sensitive data! So if anyone does find out whodunnit, keep it tight and tell no one. This individual has done the world a great service, and must be protected. In a few years time we may find out, but even then his/her career will be finished, because the establishment simply won’t allow it.
Lovely rainbow Anthony, we also get a lot of doubles over here in Shropshire.
Carsten Arnholm, Norway says:
Very nice shot. There, you can really see how it is brighter below the primary rainbow than above it. (I have never really seen a picture where you can clearly see Alexander’s Band because it seems difficult to see the increase in brightness again above the secondary rainbow. That is perhaps not surprising since such a brightness increase comes only from light that has been reflected twice within the drop…which is a fairly small fraction, whereas the increased brightness below the primary rainbow comes from light that has reflected once within the drop.)
Another thing that one can see a bit in your picture next to the primary rainbow (i.e., just below it) are the supernumerary bows. Unlike the primary and secondary bows, the supernumerary bows cannot be understood using the ray picture of light but are in fact a consequence of interference, i.e., the wave nature of light.
John K. Sutherland says:
I am not sure if this was meant seriously or as a joke but I will just say that this is not the correct explanation. The reason it is darker is that the primary rainbow represents the maximum angle for which light that reflects once within the drop can emerge…So, there is once-reflected light at smaller angles (i.e., below the rainbow) but none above. As for the secondary bow, it represents the MINIMUM angle for which light that reflects twice within the drop can emerge. So, above the secondary bow, you are seeing light that reflected twice within the drop but you are not seeing any such light below it. The Alexander Dark Band is thus the angular region over which neither light reflected once nor light reflected twice within the drop is reaching the observer.
We saw a treble rainbow in East Anglia this summer. Twice. I’d had no idea that they occurred.
Nice photo.
Back in September I was driving on I-15 a couple hundred miles south of Salt Lake and had a double rainbow follow along for many miles. The mountains caused just the right amount of lift and being just to the east of the highway were in the perfect location. It was a unique experience.
Nice rainbow shot! And happy new year to you!
Steve Keohane (07:17:46) :
Hello Steve,
Being a “Show me” chap, I thought Carbondale, that is a “coal valley!” Google maps inform me that the place exists, but are there any coal mines? Ahh haaa! It’s named after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbondale,_Pennsylvania
I mention this only because I am supping good red wine whilst sitting in front of an open fire, burning coal and toasting crumpets, (it’s an English thing). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumpets
Naturally, outside it’s brass monkey weather. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1239908/Britains-big-freeze-hit-return-work-forecasters-issue-new-ice-alert-drivers.html
C’est la guerre. Hic!
Be careful, that might be a “rotten rainbow”.
It could be unstable, and fall on someone…
Best Wishes to you and your Blog for the New Year !
Nigel S.
Good reminder, drawn from:
Job 38:8-11 NIV
That understanding that laws of nature existed launched the scientific revolution in searching for those laws. It also provided the foundation to establish the USA by appealing to:
dearieme (07:49:42) :
We saw a treble rainbow in East Anglia this summer. Twice. I’d had no idea that they occurred.
—…—…
Hmmn.
A triple rainbow in reportedly originating from East Anglia, eh?
Was this an “augmented data” rainbow, or was it just a summarized rainbow report based on the “corrected datum” of previous double rainbows in East Anglia sighted elsewhere? We must get Lord Monkton to verify such a finding, else it will not be considered a “peer-reviewed” augmented double rainbow siting from East Anglia. 8<)
What a fantastic view, even sans rainbow! They are wonderful phenomena to witness, and I never miss a chance to marvel when I see one. This one is something else! Wow!
Congratulations on securing your own little slice of paradise! I hope you have a New Year which is as successful as the past one has been and, please, keep up the great work!
Perry, The Mid-Continental Resources mine closed in 1990, the last coal mine in this immediate area. Just south of here is a major mine still in operation at Somerset, and many trains coal-laden head east along I-70 toward Denver and east, with loads from Utah and western Colorado. Enjoy your crumpets and red wine by the toasty fire.
What hint of a secondary Rainbow are you talking about Anthony ? I’d call that a 2X4 hint in your photograph. Even for my lousy vision, that is a farly prominent secondary, which is usually quite hard to capture.
But did you find the pot of Gold at the end; presumably the end of a secondary, has a pot of coal chunks.