My blog is mostly about wildlife, particularly birds, walking, days out, all growing things and anything else that comes to mind.
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Thursday 7 August 2008

Colourful clouds for Skywatch Friday



I saw this amazingly colourful "cloud" in October 2006 from my garden. I believe it's a plane's vapour trail which has caused ice crystals to form at high altitude, thereby reflecting the colours.

However, if YOU have another explanation, I'd love to know it please :)

19 comments:

Julie said...

I do like your strange clouds. I always thought this type of cloud was the product of upper atmosphere wind, but I have little expertise in the area. I have no idea where the colour may have come from. I do know that I like your photos.

Kelly said...

Beautiful clouds, so whispy and flowing!

Anonymous said...

These are strange and beautiful clouds! I also have seen clouds like this, but have no idea what causes the rainbow colors. Great captures!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures!

Photo Cache said...

What beautiful patterns on the sky.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Whatever they are they are stranegky hypnotic.

Rose said...

I do like the hint of colorppI just thought it was a good old sun dog.

Louise said...

These are beautiful! It looks like a "sundog" to me, but I have never seen one in a contrail before. Whatever it is, it is definitely worth some pictures.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Tricia: All I know is that is a special cloud formation. Go to Dewdrop and tell him to take a look. He is #2 on the link. He is a cloud expert.

Deborah said...

I have no idea what caused it, but it's pretty!

Cátia said...

beautiful!great picture

Jan said...

It's funny, Alan and I were only talking about this the other day, we see things in the clouds, faces, animals, spooky ghosts. I love looking at the sky near sunset, actually took some photos from the car driving back down the M4 on Sunday (I wasn't driving...) I've also seen one like yours here, often wondered what caused it.

Torsdag 1952 said...

nice shots, nice SWF

Anonymous said...

Very interesting looking clouds..Happy SWF!

Dewdrop said...

Thanks, fishing guy for sending Tricia my way, first of all... I am a she and hardly an expert on clouds, but I do know an awful lot about them, since they are a passion of mine.

Tricia, what you have captured is a sundog! They are gorgeous, aren't they?! One of my favorite sky events, aside from mammatus clouds (I promise I won't get side-tracked)... sun dogs or solar parhelia are, in fact, a refraction of the sunlight on the cirrus ice crystals in the sky, and it does look like the cirrus cloud you captured was, in fact, generated by a man made contrail (the convective effect of a jet airplane's exhaust).

I have posted a few sun dogs in the past since I love them so much... Sun dog post #1
Sun dog post #2
Sun dog post #3

Beautiful capture, Tricia! They are phenomenal!

Tricia Ryder said...

Dewdrop - very many thanks for that comprehensive reply and links to your pics - cool stuff!

Berit T said...

Very beautiful!!!

Raven said...

I like the pattern of this cloud even without the rainbow colors. Something about the shape reminds me of a giant feather. Beautiful shots.

dlyn said...

That is so gorgeous - and nice to have an explanation Dewdrop! Happy SWF and hope you come and see mine here:dlyn

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