The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Weather => Topic started by: Kamaji on August 30, 2022, 02:14:58 pm
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Mysterious ‘rainbow cloud’ stuns, dubbed ‘unicorn sprinkles’ by meteorologist
By 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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(https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/Jam_Press_JMP230677.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=573)
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Source: https://nypost.com/2022/08/30/rare-mysterious-rainbow-cloud-stuns-internet/
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Hmm. I've seen similar iridescent clouds, though never of that shape. They're a cool phenomenon—uncommon, to be sure, but not exceptionally rare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_iridescence
A similar example from August 6 here in America (photo credit: Eric Lyons, Parker Canyon, AZ)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Cloud-iridescence-Parker-Canyon-AZ-Aug-6-2022.jpg/800px-Cloud-iridescence-Parker-Canyon-AZ-Aug-6-2022.jpg)
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Ooh so pretty.
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(Dammit George, the chemical valve broke and it's all dumping out right here instead of leaving nice contrails...)