Hawaii’s Rainbows Appear Often, Sometimes Two At a Time

Single and double rainbows add to Hawaii’s natural beauty

Hawaii truly is a magical place with unbelievably gorgeous scenery. It has beaches, mountains, waterfalls, and an abundance of rainbows.

I was fortunate enough to live on Maui for ten years, from 2002–2012, then on Oahu for five more before moving back to the mainland in 2017.

While in Hawaii, I saw many rainbows. The one pictured above was my view from our apartment on Oahu one day.

Occasionally, double rainbows would appear. They were always a special treat and source of great delight! Here’s one example:

The second rainbow is a little harder to see in the photo below, but it’s above the one that’s clearly visible:

You may be wondering what makes a double rainbow possible. This website explains the science and includes some fun facts like this one:

A key feature of double rainbows is that the color sequence in the second rainbow is reversed, so instead of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (ROYGBIV), the colors appear in VIBGYOR order.

You can see that if you look closely at the double rainbow photos above.

In addition to appreciating their beauty, I’ve always seen rainbows as signs of hope.

The Bible mentions rainbows multiple times, most notably in Genesis 9:12–17, which includes these words:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds …

I also like this reference to a rainbow in Ezekiel 1:28:

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

Rainbows are also beautiful reminders that a spectrum of colors gathered together is much prettier and worthy of admiration than a single color by itself. I think the same is true of humans, and it saddens me that some people think their skin color is the best one and should be kept separate from others.

Finally, rainbows remind me of my friends, family members, and others who self-identify as LGBTQ+. I see each of them as a beautiful creation of God and am grateful for the many ways they support and inspire me.

Now that I no longer live in Hawaii, I don’t see rainbows as frequently. When they do appear, I marvel at their beauty. I appreciate seeing rainbows even more than I did then since it happens less often.

I would like to thank Dr. Preeti Singh for the prompt to write about rainbows. You can read her article here.

I also want to highlight this article by William J Spirdione, which includes a description of how we can create our own rainbows.

If you’d like to learn about other signs of hope I appreciate, read this article about the inspirational billboards now appearing across the United States and the nonprofit organization sharing these positive messages: