This fogbow was more apparent on camera than it was to the naked eye, but it grabbed my attention on a chilly morning walk around Beaudesert, on 1 May.
Fogbows aren’t all that common, and when I saw one this time last year*, I got so excited I researched and wrote a little story for the paper, explaining how these mysterious white rainbows occur due to tiny fog droplets in the atmosphere.
So, on foggy mornings around town keep an eye to the sky and you might find yourself somewhere over the fogbow too!
*For those who are curious, here is the story from 2022, for some background!
Fogbow forms over Beaudesert
Beaudesert Bulletin 22 April, 2022
A mysterious white rainbow – known as a fogbow – stretching over Beaudesert on a recent autumn morning has been put down to tiny fog droplets in the atmosphere.
Early morning commuters and exercisers who looked to the sky at about 6.30am Monday, 11 April might have noticed the fogbow emerging from a foggy sunrise over the township.
The phenomenon came about as morning temperatures started to cool (it was a relatively fresh 14.2 degrees when this photo was taken).
According to information from the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, fogbows form in much the same way as rainbows.
“You can sometimes see various optical effects in the atmosphere that aren’t rainbows but bear some resemblance to them,” the information reads.
“They form in the same way as rainbows, with the sun’s rays being refracted and reflected by the water droplets in the fog. However, fog droplets are typically much smaller than the raindrops that form rainbows.
“This leads to smaller amounts of refraction and reflection so the colours in a fogbow are less distinct and often appear to be white.
“To see a fogbow, you need enough fog to provide a dense screen of water droplets; however, too much fog can block the source of light (the sun/moon).”
