Texas Storms

We have some pretty wild weather here in Texas and if you catch it right, you can get a spectacular show, complete with lightening bolts and vivid colors!

A circumhorizontal arc only appears when a specific set of atmospheric conditions occur. The display is caused when light entering hexagonal ice crystals in the clouds is refracted. But, for a fire rainbow to appear, the sun must be very high in the sky, the clouds must be high altitude cirrus clouds and the ice crystals must be shaped like thick plates and aligned with their faces parallel to the ground.

 

Funnel Cloud in Texas City! This baby went right over the top of me and scared me half to death!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A stray lightening bolt!

 

 

 

Approaching Rain in Katy

 

In 2005 we got a visit from Hurricane Rita and I looked up in the sky as the storm approached and this is what I saw around the sun. A very interesting sight in the middle of the day!