Mysteries of the Rainbow

After Easter, the mass exodus begins on our special brand of paradise. The car carriers, it seems, are waiting on almost every street corner, and the long waiting lines disappear at the restaurants. After Easter, almost everyone that works in the hospitality industry, or lives nearby, can begin to relax and breathe at a normal pace.

The reason for the hasty departure is the age-old appeal to travel to fair weather. The car carriers carry the visitor’s vehicles away, and the airplanes, trains, and freeways ferry our fair-weather friends back to the thawing land of daffodils, apple blossoms, and spring in the Midwest. There can be no doubt the beautiful change of seasons can be a compelling motive for the move to the north, but the everyday treasures of the tropics also have a special appeal that is just as captivating during our spring and summer thunderstorm months. 

For the Marco Beach Boys and Girls that have good-naturedly and patiently acclimated to our tropical environment and face the upcoming deluge of humidity, full flowering everything, and the rainy thunderstorm season of late spring and summer, a unique reminder is waiting to illuminate everyone who calls our islands home.

In the balmy land of summer in the tropics, we are often compelled to stop, watch, and wonder as we gaze upon the magic of one of Mother Nature’s most incredible phenomena.

Every culture since antiquity has a myth or legend about Mysteries of the Rainbow and as the weeks of spring and summer progress, thundershowers provide a backdrop and set the stage for one of the greatest shows on earth - rainbows arch over our islands and pour a colorful but elusive light that has mystified humanity for centuries.

In Greenland, the Eskimos believe the rainbow is the hem of God’s garment. In Bavaria, the southern Germans believe the saints travel through a rainbow as they pass between heaven and earth. Another favorite is that a rainbow appears when St. Peter opens the heavenly gates to admit another worthy soul. Old Norse legends relate that beloved passed-away pets are on the other side of the rainbow, patiently waiting for their masters to come home.

Most everyone knows that an Irish leprechaun waits at the shining base of a rainbow watching over his legendary pot of gold and that Judy Garland sang Over the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. Today the image of a rainbow signifies everything from peace and goodwill to significant others of the same sex. Today we know a unique mixture of sunlight and misting water combine to make rainbows, but many of the old European legends still abound and have roots in modern culture. One old tale claims that if a man crosses through the gate of a rainbow he becomes a woman, when a woman crosses, she becomes a man. There are rainbow flags in Key West!

Scientists tell us rainbows appear as an arch because light bends. When white light passes through a prism - a cut glass object with a pyramid shape - the light turns and reveals the component colors we see in a rainbow. Sunlight is made of individual light waves that all have different frequencies. When millions of water droplets catch the sunlight, the different frequencies hidden in white light begin to turn at right angles and slow down. Every color we see in a rainbow belongs to a different frequency of light and the different frequencies move at different speeds. All the colors of the rainbow are contained in a spectrum of light. Violet and red are at opposite ends of the light spectrum and appear as different colors because they travel at different speeds.

As we stand and observe a rainbow, we are looking at an incredible combination of uncountable raindrops. From the observer’s point of view, the colors of the rainbow come from raindrops at different heights. Higher raindrops will catch and slow down the sunlight and refract the color red to the observer. Raindrops that are lower in the sky will not show the color red but will reflect violet. All the raindrops between the higher reds and lower violets will refract and create the different color bands we see in a rainbow. If we were able to climb over the height of a rainbow, the bands of colored light would form a complete circle and might appear as if we were watching a section of land or water with golden light inside. Ground-level observers only see the bending colors arching up from the horizon because the earth gets in the way. When the sun is lower in the sky, ground-bound observers see a higher arch and more of the full circle. When the sun is higher, a smaller rainbow will appear. Single rainbows occur when the raindrops reflect the sunlight once. Double rainbows appear when the raindrops reflect the sunlight twice. Normally the second rainbow will appear slightly fainter, and because of the double light reflection, the color bands will appear in an opposite sequence with red on the bottom and violet on top.    

Many of the Marco Beach Boys and Girls believe that the best, strongest, and most colorful rainbows appear on our islands with the occasional morning thundershower when the thunder rumbles just after dawn. Florida maritime legends declare that the base of rainbows over water only appears where lost and forgotten shipwrecks are waiting beneath the waves.

Living among our islands in the spring and summer season can be a unique and wonderful experience. Take the time to grab a camera, chase down a rainbow, and truly find a treasure.