The Sun Dogs of Douglas County
A rare and haunting atmospheric display over St. Andrews puzzles local observers and scientists alike.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On February 1, 1893, at St. Andrews, Douglas County, Wash., with a clear sky and the sun shining brightly, a luminous ring appeared overhead. The thermometer read 5 degrees below zero from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The ring appeared in a plane parallel with the horizon. In the center of the ring was a short arc of a rainbow in full colors, with the convex side toward the sun. On either side of the sun were two equidistant, brilliant sun dogs. Their short arms were arcs of a smaller circle which, if continued around the sun, would have shown perpendicular to the plane of the large ring. These arcs were slightly tinged with rainbow colors, with very brilliant or luminous white spots at their intersection with the large ring, tapering off into a long tail in the large ring. Professor O.E. Bates of Cheney noted that while the colored rings could be explained by the polarization of light and ice crystals in the air, the specific relative positions of the ring, sun, sun dogs, and rainbow arc remained a mystery.
“I have no satisfactory theory to account for the relative positions of the ring, sun, sun dogs, rainbow arc etc.”
Atmospheric phenomena like parhelia (sun dogs) are still frequently reported in Eastern Washington during harsh winter spells. Modern meteorology has long since explained the physics behind these 'inexplicable' lights, but the awe they inspire remains unchanged.
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