Circumhorizontal Rainbow

Our 6 year-old came in to get us to see a rainbow today. We were surprised, since it's a pretty warm day with no rain predicted. Imagine our surprise when we saw a circumhorizontal rainbow! Neither of us have ever seen a rainbow of this kind be this clear and bright before, even though the basic kind aren't all that uncommon here in Utah.

This type of rainbow is formed not by rain, but by ice crystals in the high wispy cirrostratus clouds. It sort of looks like the sun is right above you and a ring (partial in this case) forms all the way around the sky. Often the ring is monochromatic. In our pictures, it is a really nice bright rainbow.

The sky has certainly been good to us this summer!