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PHENOMENON

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CHECK OUT https://www.weather.gov/owlie/weird-weather FOR MORE WEATHER PHENOMENONS 

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A BROCKEN SPECTRE
​IMAGE BY CHRIS HERATH

Glory A glory is an optical effect that casts a rainbow halo around the head of an observer’s shadow. The conditions for it are usually best in high places, like mountains and tall buildings, which are also the right environments for elongated shadows called Brocken spectres to form. Together, they make quite a striking scene. Glories appear when light hits the little water droplets making up clouds or fog. The light separates out into the different colors that make it up, the same way it does in a rainbow. Because of the way light bounces around in the droplets, we get a small series of circles instead of a big arcing bow. Glories are often seen when you’re high above the ground because the water droplets in the clouds or fog have to be level with the light source, and that light source has to be below you. That way, the halo lands at the head of your shadow. Brocken spectres have the same requirements. When you cast your shadow down into clouds or fog, the light exaggerates your figure. You seem much larger and longer-limbed, and you may appear to be moving because of movement in the water droplets. These unnerving shapes coupled with glories fueled superstitions for centuries.