Aidan Breznoick/KTVB

A sun dog appeared in the horizon Tuesday morning

BOISE - What’s up with the sky?

NewsChannel 7 got several calls wondering why there are “three suns” up in the sky.

No, the sun didn’t just divide and multiply – but the two large, bright flares to the sides are known as “sun dogs” according to meteorologist Larry Gebert. The scientific term for the halo is parhelion.

"Any time you get the moisture in the air that crystallizes and freezes and is fairly close to the ground - you get the reflection and refraction of the crystals along with the sun," Gebert said.

In this instance, the sun dog fully surrounds the sun, but is most visible on the sides near the horizon.

"Sometimes it's easier to visualize this completely at night when it appears as a halo around the moon, because the sun is so bright," Gebert said. 

Gebert described it as looking up a rainbow as if you were at the end of it looking into the air.

Temperatures are hovering around 20 degrees, with high humidity about 85 percent.

The strange phenomena showed up just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning – appearing in the bright morning sky. By 9:30 a.m. - it was gone.