The morning went to the dogs!

Tuesday morning dawned clear and cold -- frigid, in fact, at about 25 degrees below zero. Powellites were greeted by a striking sight -- bright sun dogs lit up the southeast sky.

It seems that days so cold that there are ice crystals in the air are "dog days" too. Sun dogs -- scientifically known as parhelia -- are rainbow-colored spots of light formed when sunlight is refracted through large ice crystals in the air. The dogs appear about 22 degrees on either side of the sun, at the same elevation in the sky.

Since sun dogs show up best when the sun is low in the sky, they had faded by mid-morning, but not before they were photographed by people all over town. Many chose to share their photos with us, and we've printed several of them in Thursday's paper. I snapped this one in front of the grain elevator.

Editors's addendum: Here's another dog, spotted on the Powell blog, View from the Hills.