Friday, March 09, 2007

Ever Heard of a Fire Rainbow?

[UPDATE -- I've been duped -- see below]
[UPDATE II -- If you're curious about Digg and Attention]

Under the category of 'There's something you don't see every day', a friend of friend lives on the Washington/Idaho border and took this shot last week. In fact, I have never seen this before-- wish I had.

In her words:

This is a Fire Rainbow-- the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phemonema. The picture was captured this week, with the event lasting about 1 hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20,000 feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.


Enjoy




[The Duping Scoop]

Good thing I didn't name names! This email comes in from a good, reputable source (my father-- sorry dad :) Beautiful photo of an event I've never seen before. Add in the fact of local connection and I think 'I can't wait to share this'.

So I go to Digg and write up my title and description (here's the link)

http://intelligantt.blogspot.com/2007/03/ever-heard-of-fire-rainbow.html

And what should show up but the exact same photo from August of 2006. (here's that link)

http://learnandtell.com/2006/08/01/rainbow-that-set-the-sky-on-fire/

Now I'm not one to show the world my family's dirty laundry, but someone's in troooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubbbbbbbbllllllllllleeee :)

The other reason I immediately believed it? The statistics. I'm a sucker for statistics. 20,000 feet. 58 degrees. Yeah Baby!

And people wonder how rumors and mistruths propagate.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's no full circle rainbow, or sun dog (also known as a halo) but it's still cool. Why's it called fire though, it's not really fire?

Anonymous said...

Because it looks like fire?

Anonymous said...

I've seen some of those before. But never nearly that big. Gorgeous!

Sickmind Fraud said...

It is a horizontal rainbow that goes in a circle around the sky. A photog for a paper in Seattle caught it.

Because it is horizontal, the red part is up, and, depending on the cirrus clouds, could be said to resemble flames in the sky.

It is called a circum-horizontal arc. see this link for more pics, etc.

Kenny Ray said...

What's with the Associate Press copyright in the lower right corner? Does your friend of a friend work for them? Duped, indeed!

Unknown said...

So is there a flaming pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

----
isaac
http://www.monomachines.com

Unknown said...

WOW!! What is so beautiful. I never heard or never seen it before...!!

Unknown said...

Thia is an oil slick caused by airplanes

Anonymous said...

I live on the border of WA/ID and saw one of these last year around this same time... they happen all the time around here:

http://scienceline.org/2006/08/07/physics-thompson-rainbows/

http://www.wunderground.com/wximage/viewsingleimage.html?mode=singleimage&handle=MWM&number=8

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_gallery/circumhorizon.php

Anonymous said...

LIAR this was not taken by your friend... you stole it from someone else... it even is on snopes.

Anonymous said...

Pathetic way to steal a photograph, you didn't even clone out the (C) AP. This has to be a joke or you are about as stupid as one can me.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone see the alien head in the center of the photo? it is above the rainbow but in the clouds...

Anonymous said...

Dude yer I see the alien. Freaky man.
Hey guys it may be stole but i'm glad it has been cos otherwise I would never have got to see it! Awesome pic. Sam (why to Americans get all the interesting weather?), UK

Anonymous said...

Yikes ! There is a Alien Head in the photo ! Scary :)

Antonio said...

It's beatiful... can save the image in my PC? :)

Anonymous said...

There's a lot of really obscure natural atmospheric phenomena that aren't very well known. The best site I've found that explains all this is "Atmospheric Optics"

Anonymous said...

Singe-thanks for the link. Finally, some intelligence and common sense emerges...

Anonymous said...

This is some freaky stuff when you are stoned.

Anonymous said...

This fire rainbow this is real. I double checked with National Geographic's website (news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html) before I saved the email I got about it, and they even had links to scientific explainations about how they form. It was even cooler after I read up on it.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting that "anonymous UK" asked "Why do Americans get all the interesting weather?" I didn't know that other countries didn't.

Anonymous said...

Yikes ! There is a Alien Head in the photo !


umm.. that would be the camera lense refraction. Not an alien!!

Anonymous said...

do you know where rainbows come from? do you know what the rainbow means i would not tempt the God almighty. tina in ohio

Anonymous said...

Actually though they are rare. Approximately a month before the summer Equinox and a month after the Equinox. In this time here in Northern Idaho, between Spokane,Wa and Coeur d'Alene,ID we do get to see these. Probably not as big, but we saw a very nice one on July 11th here this year. You must be in a particular location with perfect angle like seeing a full arch of a Rainbow. But these go up n down not across without any low or mid level clouds during extreme high pressure events.

Anonymous said...

IS THAT A DOGS FACE IN THE RAINBOW?

Anonymous said...

YOU CAN SEE A DOGS FACE BELOW THE ALIEN HEAD THAT EVERYONE HAS BEEN SEEING IN THIS PHOTO. TO WEIRD..

Anonymous said...

Check out this link to a picture I took of a Fire Rainbow in July 2007 while climbing in Switzerland. I didn't know how unique it was until someone pointed that out, after seeing the contest photo I sent in. Enjoy.

http://www.aai.cc/photocontest-nov.asp

Anonymous said...

Go visit this sight. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html

Anonymous said...

I am surprised nobody noticed the UFO on the right middle of the event. It's a white streak and from the look of it even at slow shutter speed it's moving pretty good.

Anonymous said...

you guys are freakin' me out with the UFO /puppy & alien comments.

beautiful arc :)

Anonymous said...

This is supposed to be rare, and I guess it is, but I've seen them in California...Northern California. As is always the case, I stood there saying, "Where is a camera when I needed one?!?"

Ms. Kitty

blonde1 said...

k. i see the dog, alien, and UFO. but would the UFO to the alien jus be a FO? but what exactly comes to mind when you say this out loud?: FLAMIN'RAINBOW.. awesome pic though!

jack_the_crippler said...

ok so we have an alien and his pet dog waiting on a ufo.... but to the stoner didnt you see the joint at the bottom of the photo? the single cloud i thought he would have seen but he missed it cause it wasnt a twinkie...... lmao otherwise great photo!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Saw a small fire rainbow for the first time in Majorca this summer, only lasted a short while though