A couple of these pictures were sent to hotshots@click2houston.com last week. It’s called a 22-degree halo and forms on days with cirrus clouds covering the sky.  (The 22-degrees is the radius around the sun.) These halos aren’t that rare but occur more often in the northern United States and in colder climates. Cirrus clouds are made of tiny ice crystals and are 20,000-30,000 feet in the sky. The crystals refract sunlight and bend the tiny crystals into a circle. Weather folklore states halos foretell of coming rain, but this isn’t true. With some weather systems cirrus clouds move in ahead of a warm or cold front but this isn’t always the case. As I mentioned these were sent last week and we’re still waiting for rain.

Photo by: Brian Ogle, The Heights