While having a fabulous lunch on the balcony at the Paragon Restaurant in the spectacular Claremont Hotel, we witnessed this brilliant 22 degree sun halo. This is not an uncommon event. What made it special (besides the oysters on the half-shell and the wonderful spinach salad) is the rainbow seen at the bottom of the frame. This may be a part of a very rare 46 degree halo. Or maybe it was part of a more common supralateral arc. I’m not sure though – this is the first time in my life I have ever seen this sort of thing.
And you know, if we had been at work today, we would have missed the whole thing. I think every weekend should be (at least) three days long, don’t you?
It continues to amaze me that is can be sunny and 70-80 degrees on the ground but there are ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.
There was a spectacular sundog here in Wisconsin in Jan or Feb. The pillar of light shot down to the earth AND up into the heavens…… Cindy
Looks like the spectrum is just refraction from the
high cirrus clouds. Beautiful non the less.