Rainbows
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And you thought rainbows were just a pretty sight at the end of a thunderstorm. Listen to what cultures around the world have thought about rainbows. Hi I'm Dave Thurlow for the Weather Notebook.

Great Gulf: Digital Canvas

Americans are used to thinking of the rainbow as a joyous sight. In the Old Testament, the rainbow denotes a sacred promise that the earth will never again be flooded. Rainbows are positive symbols elsewhere too. For example, in Greek mythology the goddess of the rainbow was Iris. Iris carried the wounded Aphrodite to safety along the rainbow's arc. Even today, the name for rainbow in Spanish is arco iris, literally the arc of Iris.

Many native cultures in North America and across the world have seen the rainbow as a pathway of souls or a bridge to heaven. In cultures rainbows evoke fear. A folk legend in Finland says the rainbow symbolizes the sickle of the thunderstorm god. Some Arab cultures have considered rainbows to be the devil's arc. In other traditions, the simple act of pointing to the rainbow means you could lose a finger, or gain an ulcer. In Romania, legend has it that one who passes beneath a rainbow undergoes a sex change. I guess it's a good thing that passing under a rainbow is, well, impossible.

In Peru, some indigenous cultures have held rainbows in such awe that people there remain silent while a rainbow is in the sky. Back here in the US, especially if you're Dorothy Gayle and you live on a farm in Kansas, the thing you're immediately compelled to do if you see a rainbow is break out in song.

Today's Weather Notebook was written by Bob Henson and edited by Diane Bowden.