Lightning strikes through double rainbow as photographer captures amazing 'once in a lifetime' snap
A spectacular photograph has captured the moment a bolt of lightning struck against the backdrop of a stunning double rainbow.
Evie-Mae Parkinson, 19, took the 'once in a lifetime' photograph in Dereham, Norfolk, during a thunder storm.
The teenager said she had gone outside to look at the rain when she saw the double rainbow.
Ms Parkinson started taking photos of the rainbows as they stood out from the dark clouds behind, when the lightning struck.
She added that capturing an image like this, which she managed to take on Sunday, was 'very rare'.
Evie-Mae Parkinson, 19, captured this spectacular photograph where a bolt of lightning strikes against the backdrop of a stunning double rainbow
Rainbows are optical illusions formed when sunlight hits drops of rain at a 42 degree angle or below.
When a ray of light hits a rain drop, it is separated into its constituent colours, each of slightly different wavelengths, by a process called refraction.
It is then reflected back towards the viewer in its dispersed form and when this happens on a big scale we perceive it as a colourful arch.
Storms provide a prime opportunity for rainbows as their volatility often means there is rain in one direction but sun in another.
For someone to perceive a rainbow, they must be between the sun and the rainfall.
And in this case, the storm also provided the ingredients for a lightning bolt to cap off Ms Parkinson's snap.
Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: 'Lightning and rainbows are both often derived from intense showery weather systems. So seeing both in the same area is not that unusual, but capturing the two together makes for a spectacular image.'
Double rainbows are actually relatively common, but the second arc is often barely visible in its completion.
The second, fainter rainbow is also always higher by 10 degrees, wider and the order of colours is reversed - putting red on the base and violet at the top.
According to the Met Office, this phenomenon comes about when sunlight is reflected twice within a raindrop, hence why it appears upside down compared to what we are used to.
The dark strip of sky between two rainbows is known as Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it in 200AD.
Between the angles required to make the two rainbows, no sunlight is scattered by raindrops, making the sky appear darker.
The band forms because between the deviation angles of the primary and secondary rainbows none of the sunlight is scattered by the raindrops towards the observer giving the band of dark sky.
One of the most high-profile instances of a double rainbow came in September 2022, as crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace in the rain to mourn the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Another appeared for those who had gathered at Windsor Castle to remember the monarch, with Brits saying the Queen 'sent us a sign' and that she has 'really left us'.
