Extremely rare red rainbow spotted in County Antrim

An extremely rare red rainbow has been captured on camera in County Antrim.

Pete Kirk spotted the sight in Mallusk on Friday morning and sent the photos to the BBC.

Rainbows form when sunlight is bent and reflected by water droplets in the air, splitting the light into different colours.

Red rainbows form in the same way, but appear at sunrise or sunset when the sun is low in the sky.

At these times, sunlight travels through more of the atmosphere.

Colours such as blue and green are scattered away, leaving mostly reds and yellows, giving the rainbow a reddish glow.

It is essentially the same phenomenon that causes red sunsets.

Unlike a red sunset, red rainbows are uncommon, people who study the skies may only ever be lucky enough to see a red rainbow once or twice in their lifetime.