From the ocean to the suburbs, Sydney residents ran for the windows on Wednesday evening, as a magnificent double rainbow appeared in the sky during sunset.
The event, which was captured on hundreds of smartphones across the harbour city, followed a splatter of rain. If Sydney isn't enough of a show-off, throwing a double rainbow in for sunset really takes the cake.
A rainbow occurs when sunlight hits falling rain and the light refracts or bends, causing the colours to separate into different wavelengths and reflect back in multi-colours to the viewer, according to the Weather Channel. A viewer needs to be facing the rain, with the sun on their back.
Christopher Crockett explains the phenomenon on sciencenews.org: "Each water droplet behaves like a prism suspended in the air. The colors embedded in sunlight separate as they race through the droplet at different speeds. When the bands of color reach the far end of the drop, they bounce back toward the sun."
A photo posted by Rob Norman (@stillnothere) on Jun 17, 2015 at 12:29am PDT
A double rainbow appears when refracted light doesn't escape from a raindrop, and part of the ray is reflected again. In the secondary rainbow, a viewer will notice the colours are reversed and often not as bright due to the formation process.
None the less, it is a brilliant sight to end a dreary day. Thank you, weather gods.
A photo posted by Simon Carr (@simoncarr4u) on Jun 17, 2015 at 12:25am PDT
There's a #doublerainbow happening in #Sydney at the moment and it's GLORIOUS pic.twitter.com/HS2sUTZSnB— Corrine/FrockAndRoll (@frockandroll) June 17, 2015
A photo posted by Bondi Lifeguards (@bondilifeguards) on Jun 16, 2015 at 11:50pm PDT
A photo posted by pierre_antoine (@pierre_antoine) on Jun 17, 2015 at 12:42am PDT
Double rainbow, all the way. Our view from work today, overlooking Darling Harbour #darlingharbour #doublerainbow pic.twitter.com/BYzDMbmEKr— Nat. Maritime Museum (@ANMMuseum) June 17, 2015
#DoubleRainbow over Sydney the afternoon after break in rain @702sydney pic.twitter.com/5lm1pqisPB— Media Services AP (@MediaServicesAP) June 17, 2015
#sydney #doublerainbow @702sydney Wow! Over #KingsCross pic.twitter.com/4IpZ60kVAE— Kit McMahon (@kitmcmahon) June 17, 2015
#ILoveSydney @cityofsydney #doublerainbow #sunset #winter #camperdown pic.twitter.com/TDxkd1D8j8— mike jones (@mikejones84) June 17, 2015
A photo posted by Aqua Dining (@aquadining) on Jun 16, 2015 at 11:48pm PDT