People amazed as they spot rare rainbow phenomenon in the sky
People have been left well and truly amazed after spotting a rare rainbow phenomenon in the sky.
Footage has been captured of a truly incredible sight spotted over China and people can't quite wrap their heads around the spectacular cloud formation.
Far from your average cloud - this particular weather event makes for a pretty awesome sight. See for yourself:
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At first glance it appears to just be a rainbow but upon further inspection, it's clear the rare sky occurrence is actually a cloud.
The clip was uploaded to TikTok just three days ago and, at the point of writing, has taken the world by storm - pardon the pun - and has unsurprisingly gone viral.
The short video has since clocked up more than a staggering 148.9 million views, 29.2 million likes and over 166.5k comments from people eager to share their reactions.
Many quite simply couldn't believe their eyes, with one TikTok user asking: "Where do you find places like these? Invite me next time."
A second echoed: "How are you even finding these places?"
"No way that’s real," wrote a third while a fourth dubbed the natural marvel 'the entrance to heaven'.
Luckily, to clear things up, one particularly savvy TikToker came to the rescue to provide an explanation for the mind-boggling vista.
They replied: "Yes, these are pileus clouds. They are caused by dense air rising, surrounding a cloud and condensing. Light refracts from crystals which gives color."
According to NASA, this person was bang-on as the natural phenomenon was exactly that - a pileus iridescent cloud.
It all boils down to a case of diffraction, which is something that occurs when small water droplets effectively scatter the sun's light.
Given that the 'group of water droplets' in the pileus iridescent clouds are all a 'uniformly similar size', they eventually come together to 'diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts'.
And this isn't the first time a pileus iridescent cloud has been spotted in China.
Just last year (6 September 2022), a dark cloud with 'multi-colored lining' was seen in Pu'er, Yunnan Province.
Talking of a photograph taken at the time NASA explains: "Also captured were unusual cloud ripples above the pileus cloud. "The formation of a rare pileus cloud capping a common cumulus cloud is an indication that the lower cloud is expanding upward and might well develop into a storm."
So, it's not just a pretty sight - the mesmerising vista can also function as a warning for some bad weather ahead.
Rhiannon Ingle