Wild, Icy Optical Effects In New Hampshire Wows Meteorologists, Sky Watchers

This photo by Alex Kotzias, taken from a New Hampshire
ski lift recently shows at least nine really cool sky
and light effects caused by ice crystals. To have so
many effects at once is extremely rare.

Interesting things can happen in the sky when it's cold and snowy and ice crystals dance in the atmosphere like countless tiny diamonds.

Such was the case recently around Franconia, New Hampshire when ice crystals and sunshine combined to create some surreal optical effects. Hat tip to "Scoop" Cronin for alerting me to all this.

Some of these effects in the sky are common, some are pretty rare. And it's almost unheard of to have nine - count them, nine - of these effects going on in the skyh at once.

The Washington Post Capital Weather Gang took note of this and the reporters involved couldn't believe the great photos. Neither can I. They got one photo from a New Hampshire Department of Transportation worker who caught a photo of the remarkable sky, but "only" captured seven of the atmospheric events.

Capital Weather Gang ran a story about it, and the original photo was topped by another, taken by Alex Kotzias as he road a chairlift at Cannon Mountain Ski Area.  All of the odd things in the sky depend upon the presence of ice crystals.

A common but beautiful phenomenon in the photos is a halo which is a multi-colored band forming a 22 arc around the sun.

Then there's a parhelic circle, which the Capital Weather Gang describes as a monochromatic Hula-Hoop piercing the sun itself. These thigs form at the same height in the sky as the sun itself.

Where the parhelic circle and the 22 degree arc of the halo intersect, that's where you get a sun dog, which is a brighter spot of light. They sort of look like small companions of the sun. Kind of like a dog next to its human companion.

The light show elements described above are fairly common, but other things in the photo are not. One is called a Parry arc and the other is an upper tangent arc, both located above the location of the sun.

Another photo from New Hampshire shows seven of the effects
caused by ice crystals. Capital Weather Gang labeled
them for us. 

Parry arcs were first observed during William Edward Parry's naval search for a Northwest Passage in the Arctic on April 8 1820. Accompanying the Parry arc in the photos is an upper tangent arc. The Capital Weather Gang says both of these flatten out as the day progresses, and eventually merge.

Above these two things are a superlateral arc and a circumzenithal arc, which are above the Parry and upper tanget arcs. The superlateral arc curves down, while the circumzenithal arc looks like a bowl.

On top of everything else, the photo from the ski lift shows diamond dust. Those are little white specks which are ice crystals closer to the photographer.

The photos from New Hampshire are filled out by two more common light displays. A shaft of light called a sun pillar extends directly upward from the sun. Clouds low to the horizon cast bands of shadows from the sunlight. These bands of shadows and light are called crepsuscular rays.

I'll never remember the names of most of the things Capital Weather Gang describes and neither will you. The important thing is how cool and beautiful all these are. It's a good reminder to look toward our rare bursts of sun in our dark winters to see some really gorgeous stuff created by something as simple as ice crystals.

I've noticed all of these things described with the sun except for the Perry arc and upper tangent arc numerous times. But mostly you see only a couple of these at a time. To have nine in one photograph is just stunning.  Wish I was in Franconia, New Hampshire that day.