Yesterday, a woman in Long Island, NY named Amanda Curtis was lucky enough to capture the rarest rainbow of them all – a quadruple rainbow. Her incredibly rare photo, and the excitement it inspired among commenters when it went viral, called to mind the viral 'Double Rainbow' video by Paul Vasquez.
According to meteorologists, what Curtis actually saw was a double-double rainbow, but that doesn't make it any less magical. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research meteorologist Paul Neiman told the Washington Post that the second double rainbow resulted from the sun's light reflecting off of a nearby body of water; "a large glassy-smooth water surface is required behind the observer. This smooth water surface reflects the sun, such that a second solar light source is generated. This reflected sun [...] creates a second primary and secondary rainbow on the opposite side of the sky from the sun."
(h/t: washingtonpost)
