This Wednesday, December 25, residents of Brittany and Normandy were able to see a white rainbow in the sky. What is it about?
On the night of December 24, many children had their eyes glued to the sky in the hope of seeing Santa Claus and his reindeer appear. But the next day, another magical phenomenon aroused curiosity: this Wednesday, December 25, a white rainbow formed in the sky. This apparition, visible in Brittany and Normandy, fascinated the inhabitants. Julien Le Jan, astrophotographer, was able to immortalize this rare moment.
“I had never seen that. As someone who is passionate about meteorology and astronomy, it’s an astonishing phenomenon,” Julien Le Jan told France 3.
A very rare rainbow
This white rainbow, also known as a ghost rainbow, is a weather phenomenon that resembles a classic rainbow, except that it is much less colorful.
“A white arc, just like a classic rainbow, is formed by the reflection of sunlight at an angle of 40-42° inside a raindrop. It can be generated by solar or lunar light and always appears in the direction opposite the Sun or Moon. The difference between a multi-colored rainbow and a white rainbow is the size of the water droplet involved. A multi-colored arc forms with a sufficiently large droplet, while a white arc, which is rarer, occurs with a very fine droplet, coming from fog or mist,” we can read on the Facebook page which relayed the photography by Julien Le Jan.
Photo credit: iStock
This is not the first time that a white rainbow has appeared since this phenomenon has already been observed in Reunion and Alsace. Although it is devoid of color, this very rare phenomenon fascinated the inhabitants on December 25. If one of them told BFMTV that this rainbow was “striking”another hypothesized that it was the “wake of Santa’s sleigh”…
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