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12 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2022 "Understanding the Weather" – A Series by Mel Zeldin, Retired Meteorologist While we are generally used to the type of weather we experience here in Beaumont, there are several interesting phenomena that most folks may not be aware of. These have to do with the sun's interaction with the atmosphere. So, let's take a look at some of them. Solar Halos: A solar halo appears when a thin layer of cirrus clouds, which are made up of ice crystals, moves over the region of the sunlight. The ice crystals act as prisms, of sorts, and both refract and reflect the sunlight. This creates a rainbow effect of multi- colored light as the ice crystals "bend" the sunlight at a 22-degree angle causing the light to separate into its component colors, red on one end of the spectrum, and blue on the other. The other aspect is the position of the person observing this halo relative to the sun. If all conditions are right, one will see something like that shown below at left. Solar halos sometimes indicate incoming storminess, but more likely in the midwestern and eastern parts of the country, as major thunderstorms often produce these high-level ice crystals which the winds blow to the east of the storms. This phenomenon can occur locally, but it is relatively rare here. Sun Dogs: A "sun dog" is a type of solar halo that occurs most noticeably at sunrise or sunset, but for pronounced sun dogs, the observer must be on flat terrain such that the sunrise can be viewed on the horizon, such as being near the Pacific Ocean or in the flat terrain in the Midwest. The phenomenon needs to have the high cirrus cloud ice crystals over the path of the sun as it crosses the horizon, and for a short period, produces reflective sunlight on that 22-degree angle. Less obvious sun dogs can occur anytime there is a solar halo, but the bright light to the left and right of the sun is much less obvious. This type of phenomenon is rare here in Beaumont, primarily because the mountains obscure the horizon. Crepuscular Rays: This phenomenon is much more common here, and I have observed these many times. When we have lower type clouds, such as stratocumulus, if there are breaks in the clouds in the general direction of the sun, the sunlight appears to have "rays" beaming down. Rain coming from these clouds can have somewhat of a similar appearance, but the crepuscular rays are viewed as coming from the breaks in the clouds in the direction of the sun, whereas raindrops can be observed from the clouds, not the breaks. It is interesting that the word "crepuscular" is derived from the Latin word for "twilight," as in earlier times, these rays would be observed most of the time at dawn and dusk. In closing, there is so much to observe in weather, the atmosphere, the sun and their various interactions, and these are some of the more interesting unusual events. A Solar Halo A Sun Dog over the Dakotas Crepuscular Rays Interesting Weather Phenomena

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