Through the Rainbow
ERIC NOEL WEILL, HATTIESBURG, MS
I was a novice skydiver. Circa 2002. Moss Point, Mississippi. High noon in August, and partly cloudy. As we climbed in the twin-engine Otter, I marked the cloud bottoms at 4,000 feet. Cloud tops at about 7,000. During the jump run at 14,000, it was clear above, but a cloud moved in under us. I exited. With the sun directly overhead during freefall, I noticed rainbow colors near the edges of the cloud. The rainbow appeared to be moving as I freefalled (freefell?) toward the cloud. As I reached terminal velocity of 120 mph, I noticed that the rainbow was not an arc, but a perfect circle. Because the reflected light angle changed rapidly as I fell, the rainbow diameter shrank steadily.…
