SUNDOG

[click on the photo to enlarge...it's pretty cool]

On my way home from Granpa's last night I was on the phone with Brittani trying to explain this strange light I was seeing...so I quickly hung up and shot this pic. This ball of light was sitting against a vertical wispy cloud...it was like the sun was reflecting off of a mirror...then as the sun dropped the light off the cloud would dissipate.

I zipped an email off this morning to our weather experts and within 20 minutes I received the response below from Cari!

So this is just like what Christine captured a few weeks ago but by the size of hers it was a Sundog...mines just a Sunpuppy ;0]

Hi Angel,

Great picture. It is actually a phenomenon known as a Sundog. Cirrus clouds, which are some of the ones in the picture, are made of ice crystals. When the sun shines through them it refracts and reflects in some interesting ways. Some times it just looks like a rainbow around the sun or a ring and sometimes like there is that weird area of light on the side. I’ve sent you a link below to explain it a little more and so you can see more pictures. You only see it on the right b/c that is where the cirrus clouds are. On the left the light spot is not there b/c the clouds are different and thus reflecting and refracting the light differently. If you look at your picture the clouds on the right and on the top are very wispy and thin (cirrus). The clouds on the bottom and left are thicker. I hope this helps and check out the link below!

Have a great day,

Cari Peugeot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog