Halo Warnings Of Bad Weather

Almost acting as a celestial warning to a coming snowstorm, the moon sported a halo on Wednesday evening, February 20, 2013. Less than 24 hours later heavy snow was moving into the area. The top image shows the moon halo behind a utility pole located at the T-intersection of Jordans Grove Road and Radio Road, about 2.5 miles east of Highway 13, NE of Marion, Iowa at 8:36 PM. This is a 7 second exposure at f/4.5, 400 ISO and 18mm focal length. The bottom image, shot as a 6 second exposure 13 minutes later, shows the halo above a water tower located on Tower Terrace Road just east of 35th Street in Marion. Both images look south and show the -2.36 magnitude planet Jupiter at right. Air temperature was 20 degrees F. Haloes, caused by refracted light passing through ice crystals in cirriform clouds that lie between the observer and the light source, often precede rain or snow by 24 to 48 hours. (From the evening of Thursday, February 21 to midday on Friday, February 22, about 5 inches of snow was deposited in our area)