The photo above is stunning. Marissa Reyes captured the power of Wednesday\u2019s storm in Fulshear.<\/p>\n
When I visit schools, one of the topics I love to talk about is how rainbows form. Since so many people spotted them after Wednesday\u2019s storms, I thought I\u2019d share that same explanation with you.<\/p>\n
First, sunshine and rain must be present. There\u2019s an easy trick to finding a rainbow: Put the sun behind you and the rain in front of you. From your perspective, the arc forms 42\u00b0 degrees from the path of sunlight. That angle is why rainbows always appear in the same general part of the sky relative to the Sun and why they form that familiar arc shape.<\/p>\n
And as Wednesday showed us, when the timing is right after a storm, the result can be spectacular.<\/p>\n
Sun to the back, rain to the front (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
When sunlight enters a raindrop, it bends, or refracts the white light, because light slows down as it moves from air into water. Inside the drop, some of that light reflects off the back surface, and then it refracts again as it exits the droplet.<\/p>\n
That combination of refraction and reflection spreads the incoming white sunlight into the different colors of the visible spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Each color bends by a slightly different amount as it passes through the raindrop, which is why the colors separate and appear as a rainbow.<\/p>\n
Two ingredients are essential for a rainbow. If it\u2019s completely overcast and rainy, you won\u2019t see one because there\u2019s no direct sunlight reaching the raindrops. And if the sun is shining but there\u2019s no rain to be seen, there\u2019s nothing to refract and reflect the light. But when sunshine and rain occur together, the conditions are just right for a rainbow to appear.<\/p>\n
Light refracts within a water drop (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Andrea sent this rainbow picture as the storms were moving out of Richmond Wednesday. She used www.click2pins.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pic by: Andrea sent using click2pins.com (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n The bowing is always beautiful. And the bending of a rainbow is caused by the speed of the individual colors. Red travels fast so it bends the least. It is at the top of the rainbow. <\/p>\n Violet travels show so it gets bent the most. Violet is at the bottom of the rainbow. <\/p>\n Each color travels at a different speed (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n