KEARNEY — Folklore would tell us, “A ring around the Sun or Moon, means rain or snow is coming soon.” Those in central Nebraska on Tuesday, March 5 were treated to a halo around the sun during the midday hours, so is the adage true?
A sun halo is caused by the refraction, reflection and dispersion of light through ice crystals, suspended within high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds.
As light passes through these hexagon-shaped ice crystals, it is bent at a 22-degree angle, which creates the circular halo around the sun.
“The prism effect of light passing through these six-sided ice crystals also separates the light into its various color frequencies, making the halo look like a very pale rainbow, with red on the inside and blue on the outside,” the Farmers’ Almanac states.
Atmospheric optical phenomena like halos were part of weather lore, which was an empirical means of weather forecasting before meteorology was developed.
They often do indicate that rain will fall within the next 24 hours, since the cirrostratus clouds that cause them can signify an approaching frontal system.
Looking at the weather forecast for central Nebraska, there was an increase in cloud cover over the area owing to an approaching shortwave trough.
Increasing low pressure in the southwestern United States will lead to winds aloft shifting out of the southwest, with a cold front descending out of the north.
These features are expected to impact the weather, with the first decent chance for precipitation since Feb. 3-4. Highly scattered thunderstorms are possible on Wednesday evening, mainly south of Interstate 80.
“As the main cold front then crosses the area from the north Thursday night, precipitation on the backside of this system could switch over to snow, mainly across our northwest, although the temperature and moisture profile suggest minimal accumulations at best,” the National Weather Service – Hastings stated.
Phenomenon such as halos around the sun do offer an empirical way to judge how the weather is developing and show that the old folklore does hold some truth.
