There's a rough rule of thumb that any time the sun is doing some sort of light trick -- be it a rainbow halo, or Parhelic Circles or simple sun dogs -- that rain is 24 hours or less away.

And sure enough, looking at the rain falling across parts of the region Tuesday, the sun said "I told you so" on Monday.

Take a look at these sun dogs that were spotted near the sun Monday evening -- the first from Dr. Dale Ireland's web camera in Silverdale; the second from the UW Atmospheric Sciences Building looking west. Note the bright light forming off to the right of the sun?

Those interesting light features are caused by the ice crystals in those cirrus clouds being in the right position to refract the sunlight. As to why it's a good 24 hour heads up for rain? Because cirrus clouds are typically the first wave of clouds from an incoming cold front.

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