UKH

Sgùrr Alasdair

Many moons ago somebody on UKC pointed me at a very cool website with everything you needed to know about rainbows and natural light effects. Specifically I’d seen 6 rainbows at once but time had led me to doubt it. The website talked about reflected rainbows, a rare phenomenon where close multiple light sources can cause this. Only common in extreme latitudes and specifically mentioned the Hebrides. This comes from the sun reflecting on water and wet sand, exactly what I’d had working close off shore. I wasn’t imagining it!

Well we topped out on Sgurr Alasdair as the clouds broke today and got the very frequent Broken Spectre, a delight. Then a double and then Laura said I think I can see three. Instinct said no but looking behind us there was the sea reflecting brightly and very close in angle to the sun itself. Repeatedly we all saw and agreed the 3rd spectre was definitely there and the low quality phone pic’s confirmed this. 
This is definitely a first for me and I’m wondering just how unique it is. Can anyone point me in the direction of the aforementioned website as the guy was extremely helpful. 
I’ll post the pics to my gallery for interest asap. Thanks

Could be this site: https://atoptics.co.uk/ ? 

Looking forward to seeing your photos! 

Is this the first time you've ever been on the Cullins?

😀😜

The most rainbows I've ever seen in one pop is a mere three.

I can't swear to it, but I may have seen two Broken Spectre rings around me in very, very bright sunlight.

I don't think Mike's ever been in the "Cullins"

It's spelled 'Brocken Spectre.'

Also looking forward to seeing the pics, the standard brocken spectre pics are usually impressive, but a triple!!

Do you mean 3 Brocken Spectres or 1 with 3 rings? Either sounds great!

That site looks fantastic, I look forward to exploring it at a later date. Thanks!

Would that be like going to the Peaks?

😶

Also could have been this website. It's not very easy to navigate on a phone but somewhere there is a list of lots of atmospheric phenomenona. I think from the page linked you can click "next" on the bottom right and see a lot of them. 

https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/photometeors-other-than-clouds.html

Yes, a similarly serious level of wrongdoing

Only tangentially relevant, but this is what I saw on getting back to the Fain road after a showery day on the Fannichs, 2 suns shining on Loch a'Bhraoin. Maybe.

I've seen a similar effect, and wasn't sure what was going on. My only guess was that there were strange reflections of direct sunlight from clouds at a higher level.

Did you have a holiday on Tatooine with its two suns?

Ah you meant 3 rings. I’ve a 4 ringer photo somewhere, yours might have a faint 4th ring too?

Thanks Mark, that was the site but sadly not taking correspondence. I've looked at a few now but still struggling to find someone to verify it. 

I don't think a reflected light source is responsible for the third ring - if it were, then it should be the same size but with an offset centre. The number of rings visible is a result of the uniformity of the size of the cloud droplets. 

Here is a reflection rainbow I was lucky enough to catch from my flat window in Edinburgh - the direction and angle of the sun were consistent with a reflection off the Forth. https://flic.kr/p/2fZiyRa

Cheers, always learning. Managed to contact the WMO with an email just now. 

V cool shot you've got there.

Yes, we thought so but my brain's fried if i look too often

Is yours of a Brocken Spectre too or a rainbow?

So it seems this is only one spectre but with multiple rings, 4 or 5 (adjust saturation). 

Not unique but definitely special.

Amazing. Sunbeam reflecting off the surface of the loch would be my guess.

The left hand "beams" appear to be shafts of rain illluminated by the sunlight.

That was my first guess but it can't be as the sunbeams would have to be at the same angle to the water. I think storm-petrel below might have the answer. 

Lovely pics, thanks for posting to your gallery Mike

Pretty sure that the left hand sunbeam is being reflected from the bright white sides of the cumulus cloud. Although there's no blue sky visible there will be more gaps in the clouds than the cloudy image would suggest as you can see the sides of cloud over the hills beyond the loch.

Great image streapadair!

Great site, thanks for posting the link. I've bookmarked that page for future reference.