An unusual rainbow, known as fire rainbow adorned the Singapore sky on Monday afternoon and was visible from several parts of the city. The rare natural phenomenon awed spectators and several took to social media to post pictures of the brilliantly-coloured rainbow.
A fire rainbow is a misleading term for the optical phenomenon called circumhorizontal arc as it has nothing to do with either rainbow or fire. The circumhorizontal arc belongs to the family of ice halos and is formed when sun- or moonlight gets refraction by plate-shaped ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. The term " fire rainbow" became common as the arc appears as colourful flames in the sky.
According to Chennel News Asia, a caller to Mediacorp's news hotline said that the rainbow looked "like dolphins." Mr Bob Toh was at Seletar Mall when he spotted the rainbow.
Check out the picture here:
Ever seen the like? RT @BBCNewsAsia: Rare 'fire rainbow' cloud phenomenon in Singaporehttps://t.co/ILgPcwZ5zg pic.twitter.com/UPckMogRRy
— David Nelson (@DaveMNelson) February 21, 2017
so i actually caught the "fire rainbow" earlier today on video but didnt think it was anything then pic.twitter.com/JjG79o4Ugj
— inez maria (@inezmariaa) February 20, 2017
