Why Do Rainbows Appear?

Rainbows take many forms.

Multiple bows, bows that cross, red bows, twinned bows, colored fringes, dark bands, spokes and more.

What I call a "Double Rainbow" there are scientific names too.

- Primary Rainbows we see all of the time. These are the normal red to violet arcs that we see after it rains.

- Secondary Rainbows are the rainbows that are reflected twice inside of the rain drop.They have the colors reversed and appear next to the primary rainbow.

- Spurious or Supernumerary bows are faint color arcs that sometimes seen next to the primary or secondary bow, due to interference. In this picture you can see the supernumary as the blue hue underneath the bright primary rainbow.

Photo: Kansas Poetry (Patrick) on Flickr. ND, CC Some rights reserved.

do set
nathan (naw-than')
to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.)

my bow
qesheth (keh'-sheth)
of bending: a bow, for shooting (hence, figuratively, strength) or the iris -- arch(-er), + arrow, bow(-man, -shot).

in the cloud
`anan (aw-nawn')
a cloud (as covering the sky), i.e. the nimbus or thunder-cloud -- cloud(-y).

and it shall be for a token
'owth (oth)
a signal, as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc. -- mark, miracle, (en-)sign, token.

of a covenant
briyth (ber-eeth')
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh) -- confederacy, (con-)feder(-ate), covenant, league.

between me and the earth
'erets (eh'-rets)
the earth (at large, or partitively a land) -- common, country, earth, field, ground, land, natins, way, + wilderness, world.