We swear this isn’t a photoshopped job — after all, so many folks across several parts of Singapore spotted it for themselves. A weather phenomenon earlier this afternoon got us into a nostalgic, drooling mood when a trippy, glowing patch of light similar to the hues of Paddle Pop Rainbow ice cream appeared in the sky.
Hello someone please tell me what’s this paddlepop looking phenomenon omg pic.twitter.com/Jg6hZPGA9B
— jeanbo ☼ (@Jeanravenne) February 20, 2017
Technically, it’s not a rainbow at all because it’s not really in an arc like the standard ones. It could either be cloud iridescence or a circumhorizontal arc, both of which are diffraction phenomena that causes clouds to appear multi-coloured. This is EarthSky’s explanation of the iridescent clouds:
“When you see a cloud like this, you know there are especially tiny ice crystals or water droplets in the air. Larger ice crystals produce solar or lunar halos, but tiny ice crystals or water droplets cause light to be diffracted – spread out – creating this rainbow-like effect in the clouds.
The phenomenon is called cloud iridescence or irisation. The term comes from Iris, the Greek personification of the rainbow.”
Oh, and this isn’t the first time it appeared. Here’s one that was recorded early last year.
Anywho, enjoy the gallery of images snapped by various netizens below:
The paddlepop looking rainbow i saw today is realllllly pretty pic.twitter.com/Likm4wkLUN
— fabulous fang (@xiufanng) February 20, 2017
Reader Interactions