Rare ‘pink rainbow’ appears over Bristol
Posted on: 08 Aug 2017The uncommon astrological phenomenon was spotted in the skies above Bristol as the sun set yesterday evening, making for a spectacle of rare natural beauty.
A pink rainbow appeared in the skies above Bristol yesterday as the sun set, and was subsequently noted by commentators for its spectacular beauty.
As the sun set over the South West yesterday, it coincided with the emergence of a rainbow, which was therefore lent a stunning pink hue.
BBC Weather presenter Simon King suggested there was no specific name for the phenomenon, but explained its formation.
“"We've got a regular rainbow, which is caused by water droplets in the atmosphere reflecting the sunlight into the spectrum of different colours," he said.
"The other thing is a pinkish sunset caused by sunlight having to pass through a lot more atmosphere - due to the low sun angle late in the day - hence the shortwave colours - violets, blues, greens - are diminished and we only see the pinks and reds, giving the rainbow a pinkish colour."
After the rainbow had faded, it gave way to a stunning orange sunset - as seen above.
We are expected to enjoy similarly good weather this weekend - good news for the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, which gets going on Thursday.