Saint Sol

The sun briefly wore a halo while in the southwest sky in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, 2016. The image above was captured at 2:06 pm CDT.

This panorama image was shot a minute later. Haloes are caused by refracted light passing through ice crystals in cirriform clouds (seen in background). While temperatures aloft were cold enough (0 degrees F or lower) to create this optical phenomenon, surface temperatures were 66 degrees F, with 73% humidity. The halo persisted for some 10-15 minutes. The appearance of haloes can herald the arrival of rain in 24-48 hours. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

A radar screen capture of wetter weather south of my location. The arrow points to the direction in the sky in which the sun halo occupied.

A satellite image of the same scenario.