Supernumeraries on primary and secondary rainbow

In the evening of July 3 2013, Wolfgang Hinz observed a double rainbow at Schwarzenberg in Saxony, Germany, which showed an unusually high number of supernumerary bows (1–2–3–4). This points out that the rainbow was caused by very small raindrops. As the two bows turned fainter and became incomplete because of being partially shadowed by clouds, Wolfgang Hinz could also see supernumeraries outside the secondary rainbow with the naked eye (1–2) for the first time in his 30-years-history of observing atmospheric phenomena!

At the same time, but about 200 kilometers away in Thuringia, I also observed a rainbow with a similarly high number of supernumeraries inside the primary bow (1–2–3–4) in a rain shower that moved away. But in this case, there were no supernumeraries outside the secondary bow.

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