A double rainbow over Midtown Manhattan, seen from West New York, New Jersey after storms on Monday, June 19, 2017. (Credit: Taka Shiraishi)
As severe storms were moving away from New York Harbor last Monday evening, a beautiful double rainbow encircled the area. Perhaps Mother Nature was celebrating the start of NYC Pride Week?
What is a rainbow?
Author Donald Ahrens in his text Meteorology Today describes a rainbow as "one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth". Indeed the traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. The "bow" part of the word describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having a common center.