Double Rainbows Seen in Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WBFF) -- Storms rolled through Central Maryland Thursday evening and then an incredible double rainbow followed!

A double rainbow is actually fairly common since every rainbow has a secondary one, it's just not always visible. To get a rainbow to form, you need the sun at your back and the rain towards your front.

This is why the rainbow was easily visibly yesterday in Baltimore around 8PM. The sun was in the western sky since it was close to sunset at 8:30PM and the rain was off to the south and east. This allowed for light to move inside the raindrops that were falling in Anne Arundel County and over the Bay and then refract and reflect to create a rainbow. Raindrops act as prisms and bend and reflect the sunlight.

A secondary rainbow is usually fainter than the primary one. Every time the light bends or refracts some energy ends up lost. Light is only refracted and reflected once in a primary rainbow and then again for a secondary one. In the primary rainbow, red is the color on the top of the arc and violet is inside. The reverse is true for the secondary rainbow with red inside and purple outside.

Meteorologist Ashley Kramlich highlighted the storm preceding the rainbow moving through Anne Arundel County. Shortly after this picture was taken, a double rainbow appeared over Baltimore.

Photojournalist Emily Kallmyer also captured the double rainbow south of Baltimore City.

Meteorologist Jonathan Myers took a nice wide shot of the double rainbow from North Baltimore.

We also got a number of submissions of double rainbows through Chime In that you can check out in the weather section!