WEATHER EYE

A rare sight in the sky: a fogbow

A fogbow forming over a flooded field
A fogbow forming over a flooded field
GETTY IMAGES

A great white arch appeared in the sky over the Scottish Highlands on Sunday. It seemed to be a white rainbow yet there was no shower of rain to form a rainbow. It was something much rarer — a fogbow.

Chris Townsend, an outdoor writer and photographer, was walking on the Cairngorm plateau on his way to Ben Macdui — Britain’s second highest peak— when he saw strands of mist drifting across the hills on a largely bright sunny day.

“At one point I was under a blue sky and sharp sunshine, yet all around rose walls of mist, making me feel I was at the bottom of a deep hole, not a usual feeling high on a mountain plateau!” he wrote on his blog.