Double delight

The delight was doubled over Otago Harbour on Monday afternoon, when a double rainbow stretched from one side to the other.

MetService meteorologist Oscar Shiviti said the "atmospheric optics" were created when sunlight shone on raindrops.

"Light coming from the sun contains all of the colours in the spectrum and when the light from the sun enters a raindrop, it is refracted — or bent.

"A double rainbow happens when that light then reflects off of the back of the raindrop and is refracted once more as it exits the raindrop and heads back towards your eyes.

"Because the light has been refracted twice, the different colours of light reach our eyes at slightly different angles, creating the spectrum we see as a rainbow."