Day 208: As rainbows go, this was a pretty good one: a full arc from pasture to river with a secondary and faint tertiary, but it was nothing compared to one I saw in the early 1970s in Enumclaw, WA. My husband and I were bicycling from Seattle and decided to head home after getting caught in a powerful squall. Enumclaw is known for its meteorological events, especially freakishly gusty winds which rip down from Snoqualmie Pass. On that day, the wind wasn't particularly strong, but the squall brought pea-sized hail which is not something you want to be bicycling through, so we had taken shelter at a gas station to wait for it to pass. When the barrage was over, the rainbow appeared, first one band which brightened dramatically, then the secondary developed outside it with its colours reversed. Then the tertiary appeared, a little apart and inside the main arc. A fourth (quaternary) became visible on the opposite side of the arc, and then...yes! We could see the full range of colours in a FIFTH arc (that would be "quinary" in sequence, but is usually referred to as "fifth order"). A five-banger! And did anybody have a camera? Digital photography was not yet a thing, so the only record I have of it is mental, but I count it among the best spectacles of my life, right up there with Comet West which swung by a few years later. Since the Enumclaw event, I've seen "threes" and a few faint "fours," but I think the five-banger was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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