The record-breaking nine-hour rainbow seen in Taiwan last week has made headlines around the world days after it was witnessed by two professors from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.
Chou Kwun-hsuan and Liu Ching-huang, professors at the university’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, said the rainbow lasted for eight hours and 58 minutes, from 6:57am until 3:55pm on November 30, the BBC reported.
“After four hours, we began notifying everyone in the school to take pictures of the rainbow,” Chou said.
The professors and students of the university documented the phenomenon and will submit their evidence to the Guinness World Records.
According to Guinness World Records, a rainbow usually lasts for less than an hour. The current world record for the longest-lasting rainbow is six hours, from 9am to 3pm in Yorkshire, England on March 14, 1994.
Professor Chou said the rainbow was able to last for nine hours due to a seasonal monsoon that trapped moisture in the air, which formed clouds, and relatively slow winds and lots of sunlight.