Interesting Horizontal Rainbow

[Argonaut20]

This occurred while I was volunteering at the Gila Cliff Dwellings. I had never seen anything like it. A fellow who caught it on his iPhone posted the video. While not strictly camping related, it is a good example of "Gee Whiz" things that happen.

 

[highz]

Very beautiful! Thanks for sharing this. I'm guessing it's a circumzenithal arc, formed in ice crystals in cirrus clouds (usually). How lucky to see it!

 

[highz]

Hmmmm. Maybe a circumhorizontal arc. The tree's shadows indicate the Sun was not too high, but it's a bit hard to tell in the video. If the Sun was high, it's probably circumhorizontal. Either way, seeing something like this in a place like the Cliff Dwellings is pretty darn special.

 

[Argonaut20]

Time was about 10:30AM. The rainbow was SE of the Cliff Dwellings.

 

[highz]

Time was about 10:30AM. The rainbow was SE of the Cliff Dwellings.


If it was closer to 11 a.m., then the Sun would have been high enough for it to be a circumhorizontal arc. The Sun has to be at an altitude of at least 58 degrees. I'm assuming the date was close to the date it was posted to YouTube - mid-July?

 

[Argonaut20]

More like the middle of June. Time could be 11:00 or a little later as the shadow in front of the cave is pretty far back toward the opening.

 

[highz]

More like the middle of June. Time could be 11:00 or a little later as the shadow in front of the cave is pretty far back toward the opening.


At 10:55 (MDT) on June 15, the Sun's altitude would have been 58 degrees at the Cliff Dwellings (within a couple of minutes - I did some guesswork on adding a factor for elevation), so I'm thinking you were lucky enough to see a circumhorizontal arc.

Love those optical sky phenomena. I've seen the "green flash" a few times and the zodiacal light many times. Sundogs are fairly common when we get the leading edge cirrus of Pacific storms. It's always a "Wow" moment.