A bizarre, glittering cloud

[Jazzy]

A bizarre, glittering cloud has appeared over Australia and no, it isn’t chemtrails.

A bizarre, glittering cloud with a strip of rainbow across it has appeared in the skies over Australia – and no, it isn’t chemtrails or a UFO.

Residents of the Gippsland area in the east of Victoria state were baffled and blown away in equal measure to see the unusual cloud formation, which appeared at around 1pm local time on Monday.

To the disappointment of conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, the circular band in the cloud with the rainbow belt was revealed to be a Fallstreak Hole, also known as a hole-punch cloud or (most theatrically) a skypunch.

According to the Cloud Appreciation Society, the holes are formed when water droplets in the cloud freeze into ice crystals, becoming slightly heavier than the surrounding droplets and pulling a portion of the cloud downward. The rainbow effect is the result of those frozen crystals refracting light.

Wow, how beautiful.

 

[Off Topix [Bot]]

System message: This thread has received zero replies thus far and has been bumped by a staff member.

 

[Jazzy]

Truly is beautiful. Has anyone ever seen a glittering cloud?

 

[+paradox]

just because a cloud group says it's a "skypunch" doesn't automatically make it one, it's only a guess, an educated guess yes, but still a guess... there weren't any tests or no plane fly-thru either...

but indeed, very cool looking and i haven't seen one before...

 

[Nebulous]

That looks pretty neat!

Science is amazing/

 

[+paradox]

it's not science, it's nature, if it is indeed what some are claiming it to be...

 

[Nebulous]

it's not science, it's nature,

Nature can be considered science.

 

[MrDawn]

Truly is beautiful. Has anyone ever seen a glittering cloud?

I've never seen anything like it. But it's very beautiful.

 

[+paradox]

it's not science, it's nature,

Nature can be considered science.

not in this case...

if it was man made then yes, it'll be considered science...