The Weather Notebook: Listener Story: Somewhere Over the Moonbow

Listener Story: Somewhere Over the Moonbow
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Dave Thurlow, Host

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. You've heard of rainbows, which are fairly common. But what about a moonbow? Well, John Duckworth, a listener of affiliate station WUOM in Ann Arbor, MI remembers seeing one:

Moon Halo
"I was at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. There was a full moon. There had been a thunderstorm earlier in the evening. It was a pale, pale colorless thing, but it was a bow and it was just...well, the word awesome is overused these days. I don't think it should be used east of the Mississippi River, but this was definitely an awesome sight."

I've seen a moonbow too, John, and it IS an aweso...oops, I mean wicked cool sight. A nighttime rainbow is sometimes called a moon bow because it is a reflection of the light of the moon. It works the same way its more common daytime sibling does, it just uses moonlight instead of sunlight.

Any rainbow, day or night comes from light hitting drops of rain and going into the drop and being reflected off of the inside edge. As the light leaves the drop on it's return journey, the front side of the drop acts like a prism and separates it into the colors of the rainbow.

Now this works great with the sun because of the intensity of the light, but the moon's light makes something shaped like a rainbow, but with just a hint of color.

Now if you remember seeing a spectacular...or awesome...sight in the sky, we'd love to hear from you. Just give us a call, toll free at 1-888-RAIN-001. The Weather Notebook is funded by Subaru and the National Science Foundation.