A Rare Rainbowy Sky

by Lucy

On Tuesday morning I set off to cycle to work as usual and the 7am sky was still dark and overcast. About 2 miles in, everything had changed – as the light broke through, the sky was like layers of rainbows. I only had my phone with me, but I managed to take a couple of photos which do show the colours accurately:

I thought it might be some sort of sun dog, but the colours were everywhere to the East – I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a still version of the Northern Lights.

At around 7.45am the sun was through and the shapes had separated into bright patches in the blue sky.

What a magical start to the day. I still had no idea what it was. Then yesterday I noticed the same sky in photos posted on EarthSky and it turns out that what I saw was a rare type of cloud called nacreous clouds. They are not often seen as far south as England, and it would seem that on Tuesday morning our area (East Anglia) was even an internationally notable location of sightings!

I feel very privileged to have cycled underneath these rare and spectacular clouds on what was otherwise a normal Tuesday morning. Who knows what amazing things might be about to happen when you wake up on any given day…