Five Spectacular Types Of Rainbows That Will Make You Fall In Love With Nature: Find Out What Causes Them

Throughout history, rainbows have captivated humanity with their awe-inspiring beauty. We all love to witness this spectacular meteorological phenomenon.

We are familiar with how rainbows occur—we search for a rainbow in the sky after a shower when the sun is still peeping through the clouds. But you might have noticed, there is more than one type of rainbow. Not all rainbows form an arch that we commonly see. Below are some unique types of rainbows, and find out what causes them.

Full-Circle Rainbow

With all the right conditions in place, rainbows should form a circle, and not an arch as we commonly see. However, many meteorological limitations caused by the position of the sun in the sky or obstructions caused by landscapes can prevent us from viewing a ring-shaped rainbow. But if you view it from high altitudes, like a hilltop or a tall building, you can observe a full-circle rainbow.

Multiple Rainbows

On rare occasions, if you are fortunate enough, you might be able to spot multiple rainbows in the sky. You might see three, four, or more arches; however, higher numbers are a very rare occurrence. Multiple rainbows typically have one primary arch that is more colorful and bolder, while the other surrounding rainbows have a lighter color.

Twin Rainbows 

Twin rainbows are very much like multiple rainbows with one massive difference: Multiple rainbows occur separately but run parallel to one another. But twin rainbows have a common base and along the arch, the rainbows split farther apart. This stunning phenomenon is exceptionally rare because it requires unique circumstances to appear: Two distinct showers with different-sized water droplets refract the light differently, thus causing the rainbow to split into twin arches.

Monochrome Rainbow 

A monochrome rainbow’s color spectrum is always based on one color, generally red. Therefore, it is also referred to as a red rainbow. This rare meteorological formation occurs only when the sunbeam travels farthest through the atmosphere, at the time of sunset or sunrise. Owing to the significant distance, colors with short wavelengths like blue, green, and yellow get dispersed and replaced from the spectrum leaving behind only red.

Supernumerary Rainbows

As suggested by NASA, Supernumerary rainbows occur only when water droplets are less than a millimeter across and are of the same size. As a result of this, the sunlight will not just reflect from inside the raindrops, instead, it will interfere, causing a ripple phenomenon.

Even if you have spotted at least one of the above rare formations, you should consider yourself lucky.