The rare quadruple rainbow was photographed by a woman named Amanda Curtis, the picture is now making the rounds

Apr 22, 2015 13:54 GMT  ·  By

Just yesterday, a rare quadruple rainbow formed high up in the sky over New York, US. The stunning display of colors was caught on camera by a woman named Amanda Curtis, who chanced to see it while waiting for her train at the Glen Cove railway station in Long Island.

Rather than keep the photo for herself, Amanda Curtis posted it on Twitter. Soon enough, the astounding view went viral, being favorited and shared thousands of times.

Amanda first noticed only a double rainbow

Together with the other commuters at the Glen Cove railway station in Long Island, New York, Amanda Curtis first noticed only a double rainbow.

When she looked more attentively, however, the woman realized that what had formed in the sky was actually a quadruple rainbow. Not wanting to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she quickly grabbed her phone and took a photo of it.

“Quadruple #Rainbow at #glencove ny @LIRR station Today will be 4 pots of #gold #lucky #chasetherainbow #aprilshowers,” Amanda Curtis wrote in the message accompanying her photo on Twitter.

“I hope it brings some luck to everyone who sees it,” she added in another post. Unfortunately, there is still no news about anyone in New York having found at least one bucket filled with golden coins.

How and why rainbows form after a rain event

Rainbows happen when the air is saturated with water droplets that act like a glass prism and break down sunlight into the seven colors of the spectrum. To get a better idea of how this phenomenon plays out, check out the image below.

Right about now, you might be asking yourselves why it is that the colors in a rainbow are always arranged in an orderly fashion despite the fact that airborne water droplets break down light into seven distinct colors. Shouldn't it all be just one big mess?

Well, the thing is that, to us humans, each water droplet only produces just one color. This is because, depending on the altitude of the water droplet and the position of the observer, just one color of the spectrum gets noticed by our eyes.

Water droplets high up in the air birth the color red, those closer to the ground give us blue and purple. Whatever other colors are dispersed at the wrong altitude for our eyes to notice them simply fail to be registered and we don't even think they exist.

How water droplets affect light

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Quadruple rainbow over Long Island, New York
How water droplets affect light
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