‘Fogbow’ Descends Over Lake Fairfax in Reston

A ghostly rainbow formed entirely out of fog descended over Lake Fairfax on Monday as a dense fog advisory blanketed most of the region.

The fogbow was spotted by a Twitter user who was surprised by its strange appearanceThe Capital Weather Gang chimed in to offer some clues on its cloudy appearance.

Rainbows form when lights enters a water droplet. Each beam of sunlight travels at a different speed, slowing down at different rates when hitting a raindrop. Light is refracted and cast into an arc of color.

Fogbows, however, form from extremely small droplets, resulting in less refraction.

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