On the Rainbow Road

Aug 14, 2019

By Christian Begeman

“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high.” Chances are good that if you read or hear these words a familiar tune will pop into your head. Likely it will be Judy Garland’s signature melody from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Or maybe it will be Hawaiian-born musician Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole’s ukulele version that has 768 million views on YouTube. This song may be the most familiar rainbow tune, but there are plenty more. I grew up hearing Kermit the Frog sing “Rainbow Connection,” and then learned to sing it myself in music class. One of my favorite country songs from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band reminds listeners that, “If we’re ever gonna see a rainbow, we gotta stand a little rain.” Rainbows are special. They are ephemeral. Unique. Often amazing. Plenty of rain fell this spring and summer, so there were more than a few opportunities to chase rainbows.

That’s actually supplanted storm chasing as my favorite hobby. As awe-inspiring and downright scary as a good high plains thunder boomer can be, my favorite part of summer is catching that first light after the storm. That’s when glorious things can happen in the heavens above. I don’t consider myself a storm chaser anymore. I’m a rainbow chaser.

It seems obvious, but to be a rainbow chaser one must stay weather aware. Storms toward the evening with little cloud cover behind them provide the best opportunities for horizon-filling rainbows. With sunlight shooting into the back of a rain cloud, the chances of rainbow creation are greatly increased. As a bonus, once the sun sets you have a chance to see that warm sunset light color the towering storm clouds from behind. It is an amazing sight to witness a changing — almost living — yellow, orange and red skyscape amble across the sky. 

That’s exactly what happened when I met a strong storm that passed through Huron and was heading southeast towards Sioux Falls. I caught the front side of the storm somewhere north of Carthage. The wall cloud was menacing, so I skirted around to the south and then drove up the backside. A dazzling double rainbow was my reward. I trailed the storm to a country steeple northeast of Howard and then stayed for the cloud show. The scene before me was an artist’s masterpiece. An elegant spire standing tall in the midst of the slowly changing colors of a summer sunset painted on a storm cloud. It was a Psalm 19 kind of moment.

A panoramic of Belleview Lutheran Church following a thunderstorm in rural Miner County.

A couple weekends later, I met another summer storm and its rainbows. The magic happened east of Stickney in Davison County and then spilled over into Douglas County about 8 miles west of Dimock. This time the rainbow stuck around while the clouds turned sunset red. Chain lightning played across the horizon for an extravagant finishing touch. Visions like that are probably why there are so many songs about rainbows. On that particular day, I did indeed find the rainbow connection.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he's not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.