Late summer rain showers and rainbow

The past few weeks have produced some very fine late summer weather across northern Arizona. Warm days…cool nights…light winds…and clear blue skies day after day.

But that gets boring after awhile so I was happy that we had a change of weather this week. Copious amounts of tropical moisture have surged northward across Arizona just as a weak Pacific weather system and cool front swept eastward across the state. The result was a night and day with on-again, off-again rain showers and a few thunderstorms.

Rainbow and anti-crepuscalar rays over northern Arizona.
Rainbow and anti-crepuscalar rays over northern Arizona.

Late in the day the clouds were pushing to the east and the sun was beginning to shine in the west producing the right conditions for a rainbow and for anti-crepuscular rays. AC rays are those alternating bands of light and dark seen in the opposite direction of the sun. The Atmospheric Optics web pages describe these and many more optical phenomena.

Rainbow over the San Francisco Peaks.
Rainbow over the San Francisco Peaks.

This was only a partial rainbow and the other end was located in the midst of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff.

A very nice end to an interesting weather day.