Saturday, July 12, 2014

Neoguri leaves a farewell gift - a rare double rainbow over Tokyo

Tropical Storm Neoguri came and went in the early hours of Friday morning. By the time it reached Tokyo its force was essentially spent, depleted from below by travelling over land and cooler water and from above as its upper reaches were ripped apart by the jet stream. However it left us a gift to remember it by. As the sun was setting the skies in the southwest cleared even as the rain continued in the northeast. And it produced a rare double rainbow.

A rare double rainbow over Tokyo at sunset

Often after a typhoon the skies can be vivid displays of colour, brilliant blues during the day and bright crimson at sunset. A double rainbow is something special though. It's caused a double reflection of light inside the raindrop. Hence the second arc is fainter and the colours become inverted. It's also very rare and said to bring good luck and fortune to those who see it. And in this case I could actually make out the apartment block where they should now be sitting on a pot of gold...

The order of the colours becomes inverted in the second arc
with red on the inside and violet on the outside

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