This morning the sky was particularly colourful in places such as Dublin and Belfast. People begun sharing images of the very unusual spectacle of the “rainbow clouds”, properly known as polar stratospheric clouds or nacreous clouds, which usually appear during the winter in places of high latitude like the Canadian North, Scandinavia or Alaska.
The pleasant pastel colours are caused by ice crystals formed at the extremely cold temperatures of around -85 degrees, high up in the stratosphere (around 15km to 25km high) which act as a prism.
These polar clouds are associated to high and are a very rare occurence in Ireland. The cause in this occasion has been Storm Henry, which is still strong in the country, and has made the authorities place three weather waarnings, because of the winds of up to 130kmh expected tonight.
Picture via @WeatherCee