Here’s how to add some color in your life on National Find a Rainbow Day
From learning how rainbows form to an app that tries to predict them, learn more about the phenomena on National Find a Rainbow Day
How to find a rainbow on National Find a Rainbow Day
Dr. Steven Businger from the University of Hawaii joins FOX Weather to talk about the physics behind rainbows and what weather patterns are best for finding them.
Rainbows are one of the most common and beautiful weather phenomena, and every year on April 3, we celebrate them on National Find a Rainbow Day.
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So, what are they, and what causes them?
We've compiled a list of stories that explains the science behind the stunning arcs of color in the sky.
How do rainbows form?
![Colorful arc of a rainbow during a summer storm.](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2022/03/668/376/GettyImages-1289090317.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Colorful arc of a rainbow during a summer storm.
(Jim Lane / Education Images / Universal Images Group / Getty Images)
You may think all it takes is some sunshine, rain and good angles, but there's much more.
For more information on the complex process behind rainbows, click here.
Predicting where rainbows will occur
App predicts where rainbows might form in Hawaii
FOX Weather Correspondent Max Gorden spoke to the chair of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa about the science of forecasting rainbows and about an app he helped develop that can predict where rainbows might form.
Need more rainbows in your life? An atmospheric scientist in Hawaii wants to help!
Steven Businger, University of Hawaii Department of Atmospheric Sciences professor and chair, has helped design an app that gives a good indication of where one might appear.
To find out more, click here.
Why do rainbows form around the sun?
![22 degree sun halo](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2021/08/668/376/sun_halo-e1629226519247.jpeg?ve=1&tl=1)
Photo by Miha Rekar on Unsplash
Have you ever looked up near the sun and spotted a ring of color, as if a rainbow is surrounding the sun?
The phenomenon is technically not a rainbow, though, as its colorful counterpart, it is based on sunlight refraction.
If you want to know more about this phenomenon, click here.
Here's what causes clouds to be lit up in the colors of a rainbow
![](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2021/10/668/376/circumhorizontal_arc_scott_mongrain.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Circumhorizontal arc appears over Seattle on June 27, 2017.
(Scott Mongrain)
The sun is shining on a summer day, and you head out at lunch. There isn't any rain around, yet as you look to the sky, you spy these thin clouds below the sun lit up in the colors of the rainbow.
What causes that? Click here to find out.