photo #8047780

Steve Heron (Member 61,047) saw this 22-degree halo around the Sun over Bridgetown, Western Australia. The clouds that provided the necessary hexagonal-column-shaped ice crystals needed to act as tiny prisms that produce a halo like this came from Cirrus and Cirrostratus fibratus clouds.Steve pointed out that the halo is viewed by some as a good omen, a symbol of harmony and balance. The broad spread of ice crystals needed to form this wide and complete halo can also be associated with the arrival of a weather front – a warm front, to be specific. Should the cloud forming it thicken and lower over a matter of hours to eventually develop into the Nimbostratus cloud, the halo will indeed turn out to have been a harbinger of rain. This part of Western Australia gets warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters – in other words, about as harmonious and balanced as we can hope for these days.