Showing posts with label Rainbow cirrus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rainbow cirrus. Show all posts

Friday, January 8, 2010

Rainbow Cirrus a.k.a. Fire Rainbow



We spotted this amazing cloud, which I believe is called rainbow cirrus, also known as a fire rainbow, very late in the afternoon over the lower end of Weardale in County Durham. Apparently the rainbow is cause by refraction of sunlight by tiny ice crystals in very high altitude cirrus. I've only ever seen it once before, also during an extremely cold period of weather. Quite magical. It only lasted for a couple of minutes.