Raleigh Heat Produces Fire In The Sky
Have you ever seen a Fire Rainbow? In addition to all the record breaking heat we had in the Triangle last week, we also had a Fire Rainbow. Most rainbows form after or during rain, when the sun peeks through a little, the sun hits the rain drops and refracts light to make the colors of the rainbow. 
This is not the case with a Fire Rainbow. More commonly known as a circumhorizontal arc, a fire rainbow is a halo caused by the refraction of sunlight through a cirrus cloud instead of the rain drops that help produce a regular rainbow.
The arc is rare because the ice crystals in the cirrus clouds must be aligned horizontally to refract the high sun. The arc is formed as sun light enters the crystals through the side and exit through the bottom. It is this 90 degree turn that produces the rainbow colors and makes the entire cirrus cloud look like a flaming rainbow.
This picture was taken by Peter Horoszewicz in Cary, North Carolina the first week of June 2008.
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