A rainbow above virga. | mdesigner125/iStock via Getty Images. However, rain isn’t the only type of water known to cause a colorful streak or arc in the sky.

Answer: You can't have an actual rainbow without rain, and it doesn't seem like you saw a "sun dog." (Those occur when the sun is low in the sky, early or late in the day.) ...

David Gerstman writes to Ask Mr. WeatherBlogger about rainbows: “On Sunday we were headed back from the Catskills; south on 81 through Pennsylvania. Shortly after we passed Hazelton a storm p… ...

The angle of the sun to the rain to your eye allows you to see the raindrop. A 42 degree angle is needed. The lower the sun is in the sky, the higher the rainbow will be in the opposite direction.

For a rainbow to be visible, the sun has to be at a 42-degree angle to the raindrops that are falling in front of you for the process of light refraction to work.

This hellish exoplanet's skies rain iron and create a rainbow-like effect. News. By Robert Lea published 5 April 2024 ... which is around 1.5 times the mass and 1.75 times the width of the sun.

Moisture-packed clouds and rays of light shooting out from a setting sun provided the perfect ingredients for a rainbow to form over San Francisco on Friday.