Incredible 'lightning rainbows' illuminate UK skies

All of us will have seen a rainbow before, most of us a lightning strike. But have you ever seen the two combined? The chances are you haven't but that's exactly what some of our BBC Weather Watchers captured over the weekend.

In theory, it shouldn't be that rare. Rainbows are formed when sunlight bends and reflects inside raindrops falling from the sky. We see plenty of them when there are sunshine and showers. Thunderstorms are essentially big showers so technically they shouldn't be that uncommon either.

This combination of lightning and rainbows, however, was probably down to a few factors coming together.

Firstly, there was a lot of energy within the atmosphere so when the thunderstorms developed there was plenty of electrical charge which produced a lot of lightning. The storms were also quite localised so there were sunny spells between the showers. And lastly, the timing was spot on. As the sun was setting, the angle of the sun was just right with the thunderstorm to form rainbows.

A truly striking combination.