LEDYARD, Iowa — Although blizzard conditions and dangerous cold have made the weather rather unpleasant lately, some Iowans spotted beautiful sundogs amid the bitter temperatures.
Most of the sundogs showed up on Sunday, but a few were visible early on Saturday morning as well.
The National Weather Service says a sundog is a colored spot of light that develops as a result of refracting light through ice crystals.
Refraction, according to NWS meteorologists, is “the change in direction of a wave (in this case light) due to a change in its speed. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another at any angle other than 90° or 0°.”
With a sundog, the colors most often appear red closest to the sun. Typically, they have a blue color on the outside of the sundog.
Sundogs typically pop up when it is very cold, like in our current case where wind chills in the -20s, -30s, and even -40s are common.
Sometimes, sundogs are referred to as mock suns or parahelia, which means “with the sun”.
Sundogs differ slightly from other phenomena like sun pillars or sun halos.
Keep an eye out for sundogs over the next week - as more sunshine returns to the forecast, it's quite possible more will appear!
