double rainbow

Double rainbow brightens up Toronto's skies and the photos are breathtaking

People across Toronto caught a glimpse of an epic double rainbow on Wednesday evening that provided a bit of a reason to smile after a year that has so far been admittedly bleak.

The natural phenomenon chose some pretty perfect timing — making its appearance during Pride month and just two days after the anniversary of last year's Pride parade, which unfortunately couldn't take place IRL this summer due to the health crisis — and happened after a quick rain shower that punctuated a generally overcast two days.

The fact that double rainbows apparently aren't all that rare, as far as rainbows are concerned, certainly does not detract from how awe-inspiring the sight was for people around the city, who took to social media to share some awesome snaps they captured of the event.

Without getting too boring and physics-y, double rainbows take place when sunlight is refracted and then reflected twice inside of a raindrop (instead of only once) before being refracted back out again.

What's extra cool is that viewers may notice that the colours of the second, more faint arc are reversed from the sequence in the original rainbow.

How strong the double appears to you depends mostly on where you're standing in relation to the sun, as well as the shade of the sky at the time.

The sight was a nice little reminder that as we slowly emerge from months of pandemic lockdown after one hell of a year — which unfortunately  included the death of the double rainbow guy  himself — maybe things aren't actually all bad.

Lead photo by

@spliffsmackenzie


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