National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Tracking Storm System Across the Eastern U.S.

A storm system will continue to produce widespread showers and thunderstorms as it progresses eastward across the central U.S. into the Northeast through the weekend. There are risks of severe thunderstorms and excessive rainfall on Saturday from the Ozarks into the mid-Mississippi River Valley with potential for damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding. Read More >

During the morning of March 12, 2008, an optical phenomena was visible in the eastern sky from Spokane, a parhelion, more commonly known as a sundog. These typically (but not always) for near sunrise and sunset when the sun is low in the sky and the atmosphere is filled with ice crystals, typically from cirrus clouds. Unlike rainbows, which appear in the sky opposite the sun, sundogs appear to the left and right of the sun. The sun's rays are reflected or refracted as they pass through the ice crystals, forming the sundogs.

Sun dog
Right peripheral
Left peripheral