Pink and orange artifical clouds appear over Falkirk, UK

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Pink and orange artificial clouds appeared in the sky above Falkirk on October 20, 2016, baffling residents.

The anthropogenic, or artificial, clouds were captured in photographs taken around Forth Valley. Apocalyptical!

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Thundermonkey via BBC

The clouds are believed to have come from the Ineos petrochemical plant in Grangemouth.

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Steve14335 via BBC

The clouds of water vapour most likely emanated from the cooling towers.

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Ian Collins via BBC

These are ‘artificial’ or anthropogenic cumulus clouds. They are so-called as they are induced by human activity.

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Lee Martin via BBC

You can tell this is the case by how low the base of the cloud is and that this formation was only spotted locally above Grangemouth.

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Jack Minnock via BBC

The likely cause is the heat from the cooling towers of the petrochemical works here.

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Lorraine Annand via BBC

This heat rises creating instability in the air, forcing the production of these low level cumulus clouds.

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Angelene Perry via BBC

And you can thank the timing for the spectacular fiery red colours, as the particles in these clouds appear to be perfectly catching and reflecting the sunset.

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Hugh Currie via BBC

Awesome… it looks like the apocalypse!

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