PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 A bright, colorful ring around the moon spotted early Saturday morning can be more than just a striking sight in the night sky \u2014 it can also be a sign of changing weather.<\/p>\n
I saw it on my way to work, and was reminded of when I was a child, asking my dad why a red ring was surrounding the moon. He told me it meant it was going to rain soon.<\/p>\n
Now, as a weather forecaster, I can explain the science behind it.<\/p>\n
The phenomenon, often called a \u201clunar halo,\u201d \u201cmoon halo,\u201d or \u201c22 halo,\u201d happens when moonlight refracts through ice crystals in high-level cirrostratus clouds. <\/p>\n
Cirrostratus clouds are described as transparent, veil-like sheets of ice crystals that form at high altitudes between 20,000 feet and 40,000 feet, resembling a thin, pale blanket spread across the sky.<\/p>\n
LATEST FORECAST<\/a><\/p>\n As moonlight passes through that layer, the ice crystals bend the light \u2014 a process known as refraction, not reflection. Reflection is when light bounces off a surface, like a mirror. <\/p>\n Refraction is when light bends as it passes through a surface, like a straw appearing distorted in a glass of water.<\/p>\n Lunar halos are relatively common, especially during the winter, and to summarize, yes: lunar halos often precede precipitation.<\/p>\n This tracks for our forecast. Today in Portland, we expect mostly cloudy skies with light rain possible tonight and tomorrow, followed by a partly sunny Monday. But starting Tuesday, we\u2019re tracking another storm system that\u2019s expected to bring widespread rain and possibly pass-level snow in the Cascades, followed by showers later in the week.<\/p>\n If you spotted a lunar halo, send a picture to KATU through Chime In<\/a> at KATU.com\/ChimeIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 A bright, colorful ring around the moon spotted early Saturday morning can be more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-496558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}