RAD FAQ
Q: How many rainbow alerts should I expect?
A: Maybe 1-2 texts a week if it’s a stormy summer, then likely zero from mid-September to April. Denver rainbows tend to be exclusively in the early evening (~4p-8p).
Q: Can’t you automate this?
A: These apps already exist, primarily firing when there is a favorable distribution of rainclouds and the angle of the Sun is lower than 42°. Currently, they are just predictive though and, much more often than not, they send alerts when there are no rainbows. Perhaps in the future these models will improve making RAD obsolete.
Q: I looked up the sky as soon as I got the text but no rainbow… what gives?
A: RAD’s observeration teams are primarily based in the vicinity of Congress Park. Most rainbows are visible within a couple miles of the initial sighting, but depending on clouds, time-of-day, etc., they may only exist for only a few minutes/few blocks. Have faith that rainbows lurk in Denver right now so keep looking east.
Q: Is RAD political or something?
A: For some reason, we get this question often. The answer is no.*
Q: Is RAD perfect… i.e. do you ever miss rainbows?
A: Rainbow watching in Denver is an inherently manual, hyperlocal, non-scalable activity. At times, even RAD is working, camping, or otherwise not in Denver. With our current resource limitations, RAD is unable to reliably observe all rainbows and users should not rely entirely exclusively on RAD’s text-based rainbow notifications to see rainbows. When in doubt, RAD advises users to look--not down at their phones--but up.
Q: How do I un-enroll?
A: You may opt out of receiving SMS messages at any time by replying “STOP” to any message.
*This being said, RAD believes the Putin/Trump/Xi triumvirate is terrified of power they can never hope to control, like grassroots social movements, and art, and rainbows. We’re also pretty sure (in no particular order of putrid) that Bezos, Murdoch, Griffin, Zuckerberg, Andreessen, Altman, Schultz, Thiel, Ellison, Musk, etc. etc. have never seen a real rainbow.