West Seattle weekend scenes: ‘Rainbow around the sun’ = halo

What a sight in the sky today – described by some as “a rainbow around the sun,” though the proper term is “halo.” Ice crystals in the sky create it when conditions are just right (more explanation here); the high, thin cloudiness at midday-early afternoon were also conducive. Thanks to Ben Hutchinson for the top composite image; later in the day, Don Brubeck shared the even-more-rainbow-like image below:

Summer Solstice, by the way, arrives this coming Thursday night (June 20th) at 10:04 pm. An hour before that, join West Seattle’s own skywatching (and then some) expert Alice Enevoldsen for sunset watch at Solstice Park – details here.

P.S. Right after publishing this, we noticed John Wallace III shared a link to a Facebook gallery of his sun-halo photos – see them here.

CE June 15, 2013 (9:46 pm)

Did anyone else notice how the day began with a clear blue sky, but became hazy as dozens of contrails lingered and spread throughout the sky, blanketing it with a light cloud cover?

annika June 15, 2013 (10:41 pm)

aka a sundog!

CMP June 16, 2013 (7:44 am)

I was swimming at Colman with dark goggles on and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me with a huge halo around the sun. Then I saw all of these photos on FB and now this…glad to realize my eyes weren’t going all wonky and that I wasn’t seeing a gigantic spot!