June 5, 2016 Rainbow and Spectacular Sunlit Mammatus
Santa Fe, NM

by John Farley

After a thunderstorm in Santa Fe the evening of June 6, a rainbow appeared:

Mammatus formed in the anvil overhead as the storm moved off to the east and southeast of Santa Fe, and as the sun lowered and began to hit the underside of the anvil, a spectacular display of sunlit mammatus appeared:

For this picture, I tipped the camera to maximize the view of the mammatus over the building"

Here is one more view as the sun got lower and the mammatus consequently got redder:

A couple weeks earlier on May 24, after the Dodge City tornadoes, I saw what may have been an even more spectacular display of sunlit mammatus. But since I was by then in a restaurant eating steak, I only had my rather old phone to take pictures with. Hence, pictures that did not do justice to the spectacular display. So I was very happy to get another chance so soon, this time with the right camera!

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