Unusual Rainbow Phenomena

Abstract

A NUMBER of correspondents have added further descriptions of unusual rainbow phenomena to the account by Mr. J. L. Horton of the display of June 26 (NATURE, July 8, p. 57). The month of June was unprecedented during at least the past sixty years for the number of thunderstorms, and was at the same time a generally sunny month, so that opportunities for seeing rainbows were unusually frequent. An account from J. O. Ewing, of bows seen from Brandon, Suffolk, on the evening of June 17, described three closely adjacent bows with the red farthest from the sun, of which only the outermost showed the complete range from violet to red, this being the brightest, while another bow much nearer to the sun is said to have shown colours in the reverse order. It appears possible, seeing that the effect was described from memory, that errors have been made over the colour sequences, as the bows corresponding presumably with the ordinary primary and secondary bows have the usual order of colour reversed, but even so the phenomenon was evidently very different from that described by Mr. Horton.