Image: Caters News Agency
It looked like a fireball, if not a giant fist, that traveled across the purple pinkish sky.
4 Februari 2016 18:00
Brilio.net/en - It looked like a fireball, if not a giant fist, that traveled across the purple pinkish sky.
But before your mind starts to wander a world of fantasy, it was actually a cloud that was captured in mid-January by photographer and weather blogger Rogerio Pacheco. The sighting appeared on the island of Madeira, Portugal. Pacheco published it on his blog and described the cloud as the hand of God.
BBC weather meteorologist Aisling Creevey reveals the explanation of why clouds sometimes form spectacular things, such as the breathtaking fireball that tore through the morning sky.
According to Creevey, it was quite surprising that clouds with this type of structure are actually common, but we rarely have the luxury of seeing them in this state.
The reason of this typical cloud appearance was because the sunlight caught onto a clump of cloud at a lower altitude, just when it came into contact with higher cloud.
She explained that there are three layers of clouds in the sky. This fireball seems to be a mixture of some layers. The dark sides, for instance, appeared to be clouds at a middle altitude (2,400 to 6,100 meters), which is known as altostratus.
In fact, the altostratus might be hanging above us all the time, but we usually cannot differentiate the contrasting shades of grey from each other very clearly.
"This cloud is no more complex than normal but just happens to (have been photographed at) the exact moment that the light was caught," says Creevey.
Emma Sharples, a meterologist from the UK's Met Office agrees on Creeveys explanation.
"I think the presence of a rising sun has made (it) appear more striking than the clouds alone would appear. We think they are probably cumulus (cauliflower-shaped and fluffy clouds), so pretty common, but enhanced by the light conditions, says she.
Pacheco was lucky to have captured these images, as the cloud would not have appeared like this for long, adds Creevy. Possibly only a couple of minutes.
