Share
22nd December 2023
10:13am GMT
Rare 'rainbow clouds' have been spotted in the sky across Britain, with some saying they look like a 'portal to another dimension.'
Called nacreous clouds, they are very rarely seen in the UK and only appear in very specific weather conditions.
The clouds form more than 20km above the ground, making them one of the highest in the sky, and are usually visible around sunrise and sunset.
They were captured by weather watchers across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire, the BBC reports.
The clouds were also seen in Scotland, with one person taking to a Scotland subreddit to share a pic of the clouds.
Many others shared snaps of the clouds on the BBC Weather Watcher page and were perplexed by what they were.
One person said: “Spotted this cloud iridescence from our garden in Edinburgh late afternoon. We'd never seen anything like it before.”
Another said: "A portal to the next dimension.”
And a third commented: "Brief, eerie and bright cloud illumination at sunset this evening. Unsure exactly what. No filter, no spaceship."
Someone else took to X to ask BBC weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker what the clouds were.
He explained: "They can be extremely high - three times higher than an airplane at cruising altitude. Nacreous clouds are in indicator of especially cold air high in the atmosphere…"
BBC Look East weather presenter Dan Holley said it was the first time the rainbow clouds had been spotted in the East of England in seven years.
Holley said: "They are rarely seen this far south and are usually over polar regions where the air temperature in the stratosphere can get close to or below -80C (-112F).
"Occasionally this cold air at high altitudes can shift a little bit further south over the UK and if conditions are favourable, then this can encourage a display of nacreous clouds."
He added: "The last time nacreous clouds were seen this widely appears to have been in February 2016."
Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon said: “Nacreous clouds are quite rare in the UK and are very high clouds. They can make good spectacles for viewers as they reflect coloured light from the sun, often after sunset and before sunrise.
”These clouds form over the polar regions and are made of smaller ice particles than those that form more common clouds.
"These small particles help to scatter light in a different way, which gives them their unique appearance.”
Related links:
