Community Corner

PHOTOS: Rainbows Color Sky Over Long Island

After a mix of sun, rain and clouds Sunday, the skies gave way to a spectacular light show.

Fabled pots of gold aside, witnessing a rainbow is a marvelous experience. The occurrence on Sunday evening had many Long Islanders posting their photographic evidence on various social media outlets.

Not to get all scientific on you, but a rainbow forms from the path of a ray of sunlight through a single raindrop. According to the National Weather Service:

As light enters the raindrop, it is refracted (the path of the light is bent to a different angle), and some of the light is reflected by the internal, curved, mirror-like surface of the raindrop, and finally is refracted back out the raindrop toward the observer.

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Several user-submitted photos included a double rainbow. A double rainbow occurs when the ray emerges from the raindrop at a different angle, producing a reflection of the primary rainbow.

Patch put a call out for readers to share their rainbow photos with us. Enjoy these and upload your own if you snapped one!

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