Mysterious ‘rainbow cloud’ stuns, dubbed ‘unicorn sprinkles’ by meteorologistBy Ben Cost
August 30, 2022
It looked like a portal to a whimsical parallel universe.
The internet was left in shock over a “rainbow cloud” that emerged over a city in China like some interdimensional phenomenon. A clip of the meteorological anomaly amassed more than 28 million views with gawkers wondering what could have caused it, Jam Press reported.
In the awe-inspiring footage, shot in Haikou city, Hainan, and posted on Aug. 26, the resplendent circle can be seen hovering over a dark cloud like some sort of cosmic shaved ice.
As it turns out, the extraterrestrial-seeming spectacle is actually a pileus or scarf cloud, smooth clouds that form atop a growing cumulus — dense, puffy and white — cloud due to updrafts from a thunderstorm, per Jam Press.
“The rapidly rising air in the updraft of a towering cumulus pushes against the cooler air above it, condensing the moisture right along the top of the updraft,” the Weather Network described. “The end result is a graceful pileus donning its neighboring cloud like a cap.”
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/08/30/rare-mysterious-rainbow-cloud-stuns-internet/
