Little Rainbow

Here's a recent little rainbow seen from our front porch.

Skywatch Friday

Rainbow Over San Luis Obispo

This shot was taken on my last trip to San Luis Obispo. It's a beautiful area but since the family that lived in the area moved away, I'll no longer have a reason to visit. I'll just have to enjoy the photos I've taken over the years, many of which I've posted on this blog.

Skywatch Friday

Summer Rainbow

Looking back to summer again, this Skywatch Friday photo almost looks like a painting, but it's very real.

Rainbow

For Skywatch Friday, here's a recent photo of a rainbow. It's actually a double but the second one is very faint.

Recent Rainbow

It was more impressive in person, but here's a photo of a recent rainbow for Skywatch Friday.

Last Week's Skies

Here are two skies from last week that I photographed from our house. First some sun rays near sunset.

And the next day looking in the other direction, a full rainbow. It's actually a double rainbow if you look carefully.

These are my Skywatch Friday entries for the week. And I was finally able to get a few more lightning shots this week too, but I'm saving those for later!

Rainbow

On Thursday after dinner it suddenly started raining while the sun was out. Of course I think "rainbow" and rush to the front yard with my camera, and this is what I saw.

 Notice the stormy skies on the right and the clear skies on the left in this photo.

Of course this is my Skywatch Friday entry for the week.

Huge Rainbow

I originally had something else planned for this week's Skywatch Friday post, but last night we had a storm pass over just before sunset. Just occasionally, when the conditions are right, this can make for fantastic rainbows. This one started as just a small double section.

But it soon spread out to form a semicircle, across much of the southeastern sky.

And even had sections with a second rainbow, as shown in the left of this photo.

So I've postponed the entry I had ready, and put these photos up instead!

Skywatch Friday - Sun, Storm, and Rainbow

Believe it or not, despite all my pictures of snow and storms, the weather here is usually very nice. We get 250 to 300 sunny days a year, and my first set of four photos shows one of those beautiful days from this past Sunday when I took Socks for a walk in Fox Run Park.

In the spring and summer, it's common for storms to form in the afternoon on these sunny days. You can see some distant clouds in this second shot.

The storms often form over Pikes Peak, as seen in these next two photos, still taken during that same walk. That's why I usually hike in the morning, as the storms won't have formed yet.

I have to keep up my reputation for posting bad weather pictures, so here's one from a couple of days ago, a classic anvil thundercloud seen in the distance while another storm was forming overhead.

And finally, a rainbow after the storm had passed. Rainbows are not uncommon, as the evening sun almost always shines after the storms move away from the mountains. Occasionally there's a fantastic full double-rainbow; this one isn't one of our better rainbows but it's the first of the summer.

Visit the Skywatch Friday page for more sunny and stormy skies.