People living in Limburg Province that looked outside their windows on Friday morning were given a rare treat. At around 7:30 am a red rainbow adorned the sky above much of the province. Weatherman Ruben Weytjens told VRT News that a red rainbow is very rare and occurs “due to a combination of circumstances. It was visible in almost exclusively Limburg."
Exceptional weather phenomenon in Limburg as a red rainbow adorns the sky at sunrise
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Ruben Weytjens explained why a red rainbow is so special. "When the sun is low in the morning and a front bringing rain from the west reaches inland areas at the same time, the sunlight bounces off the raindrops. Because of the low position of the sun, the blue and green hues are filtered out."
"The filtering is done by water vapor dust and other particles in the lower atmosphere. Only the red and orange colours remain and this results in a red rainbow."
The red rainbow was most clearly visible in Limburg Province, in the east of our region.
Ruben Weytjens explained that "Perfect conditions are crucial for this kind of phenomenon. In Limburg the skies had cleared just enough before sunrise. Moreover, at that time of the morning there were a lot of commuters on their way to work. They were able to experience it at first hand”
"I hadn’t seen a red rainbow in years. It's also not likely that you would be able to witness one. If this happened in the summer, for example, at sunrise around 4:30 a.m., many people would still be asleep and would miss the spectacle.
Today, however, many people were surprised by what was a beautiful start to the day”, the Limburg weatherman told VRT News.