- Rare rainbow cloud spotted
- Residents in perth
Stunning photographs have captured a rarely seen ‘rainbow cloud’ above a small farming community.
The colourful cloud appeared above Goomalling, about 130km northwest of Perth in Western Australia, on Tuesday morning.
Goomalling local Jenni Shaw said everyone was ‘in awe’ of the incredible sight.
‘It was beautiful,’ she told ABC News.
The amazing cloud delighted residents of the small farming community
The clouds themselves are not rare but they appear and disappear so quickly they are seldom photographed
‘But we were a bit like “why is that like that? Should we still be outside looking or not?”‘
The incredible sight on an otherwise clear sunny day proved that if you want the rainbow you don’t necessarily have to put up with the rain.
Rainbow clouds, known more scientifically as iridescent clouds, happen when small water droplets or small ice crystals scatter the sun’s light through a process called diffraction.
While the clouds themselves are not too rare, they are hard to spot and photograph because they typically only last for a very short period of time or appear very high in the sky.
The amazing natural phenomenon was spotted above Goomalling, about 130km north west of Perth
Lucky local residents said it wasn’t the first time they’d seen the special clouds in the area.
‘I have seen clouds like this a few times in my travels, mostly in the Wheatbelt,’ Jill Lefroy wrote on Facebook.
‘Pretty awesome seeing a rainbow with no rain!’