Snowbows

[funkymoped]

we've just had a snow shower, and it was snowing fairly heavy for a while,and we were wondering...can u get snowbows...like u get rainbows?

It might be a silly question but are they possible?

[shazbang]

Dont know about a snowbow but i saw a rainbow yesterday here in Belfast and it was snowing so yeah i suppose you could call it a snowbow.

[WendyS]

Funny you should ask that. My husband asked the same question yesterday as he was looking out of the window while thick snowflakes were falling and the sun still shining brightly. Nice to know that somebody can confirm that it's possible.

[Quizmonkey]

What a lovely question - wouldn't it be great if they were all fuzzy and dreamy due to the semi-opacity of snowflakes...

[CT]

Unlikely. Rainbows form when sunlight is refracted (bent) through the raindrop, and the white light is split into it's constituent parts. (Red-Violet). Snowflakes are made up of millions of tiny ice crystals, so the light is refracted at all different angles, leading to the light being scattered in all different directions. If the snow fall is thick then the sunlight is more likely to be blocked out. There is a phenomenon, however, in which ice crystals high in the atmosphere can create a type of rainbow. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050309.html The page here gives a short, nice explaination of this rainbow, called a 'Sun Halo'

[MrsJckSprrow]

I live in a country where we have loads of snow each winter, right now we have over 6 feet of snow outside..I have never seen or heard of any snowbows, a lovely thought though, would've been nice if it had been : )

It can snow heavily and 5 minutes later the sky is blue and the sun shining, and vice versa, but when it's snowing the air is really thick with snow or cloudy and the sun is all blocked out!!

[logman]

Well I have never seen one but i will not dissmiss the posibility, I saw two rainbows ahead of me last week, one afternoon as i was driving east. That was a first for me, it was beautiful to, like a huge Mc donalds sign, only not as ugly..

[mr_pointment]

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ulf/rainbow.jpg

wow