The really pretty thing about it is the way it intersects with the redish sunset clouds.
We had rainbows almost every week in Colorado during the summer. Like clockwork every few days during the summer, there would be a very brief, very violent thunderstorm while the sun still shone, say five minutes in length, and a rainbow would always appear.
In spite of these frequent thunderstorms, the land still remained fairly dry and desert-like.
I remember that from my summers in Boulder in the late eighties. Good times. For a while there would be a thunderstorm every afternoon between about 5 and 6, which everyone could see coming off the Front Range from a long way off, and I'd have to make the call of whether to try to bike home before it hit, or wait it out (once I guessed wrong and ended up cowering under a bridge near the creek, during what for all the world looked and sounded like the town being shelled). The tornadoes never hit Boulder, though; they touched down further east and chewed up Broomfield a lot.
As for the picture, you'll notice that the interior of the rainbow is actually pinker than the outside. Much of that pink light is actually being scattered back in front of the clouds, as part of the raindrop scattering that produces the rainbow; under more typical conditions this light is white in color. You can see a few of the diffractive supernumerary arcs inside the main arc, too.
That atmospheric optics site now has an excellent section on rainbows (http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/rainbows/key.htm), explaining many of their features with lovely photographs.
Yes, late eighties, same (that was high school for me).
In the early to mid seventies, there seemed to be far more tornadoes. Our elementary school had a basement for this very reason. We'd be down there every week, but a tornado only hit town (and not near the school) once. Usually, you are right, Broomfield and lots of eastern Colorado right past the Front Range would get hit. Because topologically, not a lot different from Kansas.
I don't think either of us was in Colorado during that last horrific flood, during which you would've been washed out from under your bridge by the overflowing creek. My mom sent me pictures. The bike path next to Spring Creek near our house was completely washed out. My dad's office at CSU was in the basement and he lost a lot of rare books.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-06-11 10:04 pm (UTC)We had rainbows almost every week in Colorado during the summer. Like clockwork every few days during the summer, there would be a very brief, very violent thunderstorm while the sun still shone, say five minutes in length, and a rainbow would always appear.
In spite of these frequent thunderstorms, the land still remained fairly dry and desert-like.
Sometimes there would be tornados.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-12 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-12 10:19 am (UTC)What noises do badgers make, anyway?
And what about the voles?!!?
no subject
Date: 2004-06-12 07:11 am (UTC)As for the picture, you'll notice that the interior of the rainbow is actually pinker than the outside. Much of that pink light is actually being scattered back in front of the clouds, as part of the raindrop scattering that produces the rainbow; under more typical conditions this light is white in color. You can see a few of the diffractive supernumerary arcs inside the main arc, too.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-12 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-12 10:25 am (UTC)In the early to mid seventies, there seemed to be far more tornadoes. Our elementary school had a basement for this very reason. We'd be down there every week, but a tornado only hit town (and not near the school) once. Usually, you are right, Broomfield and lots of eastern Colorado right past the Front Range would get hit. Because topologically, not a lot different from Kansas.
I don't think either of us was in Colorado during that last horrific flood, during which you would've been washed out from under your bridge by the overflowing creek. My mom sent me pictures. The bike path next to Spring Creek near our house was completely washed out. My dad's office at CSU was in the basement and he lost a lot of rare books.