First thing in the morning we noticed something very special in the sky. As we were getting ready to line up at bell time we noticed a rainbow in the sky. It wasn't an ordinary rainbow. It was an upside down rainbow. The children said it "looks like a smile!" It didn't fall downwards either. It was a joyful smile in the highest part of the sky. The colours were not in the usual order for a rainbow-they were in the opposite order!
Upside down rainbows, or 'circumzenithal arcs' as they're properly referred to, are a rare optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a rainbow. However, their make-up couldn't be any more different.
Unlike common rainbows which form when light reflects through raindrops, mist, or sea spray, a circumzenithal arc develops when ice crystals high up in the atmosphere bounce the rainbow's light rays back up into the sky.
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