Have you seen the ring around the sun today?
It can be seen more often than a rainbow
The ring around the sun made many Kemptonians very curious on Tuesday morning.
Residents sent us photographs, asking us to explain it.
This optical phenomenon (the result of interaction of light and matter) is called a 22 degree halo and it is caused by ice crystals within thin cirrus clouds. This halo is also described as an ice halo.
This ring/halo can also be found around the moon and some say it is a bearer of bad weather such as rain and storms. However, cirrus/thin clouds can also form without any weather changes, making the 22 degree halo not a very reliable source.
If you are worried that this halo around the sun is one of those once in a 1 000 year occurrences, don’t fear, because you can look forward to seeing it as many as a 100 times a year – more times than you’ll see a rainbow in the same time frame.
