Intense fire rainbow appears behind the clouds of Paraguay

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A powerful fire rainbow appeared behind the clouds of Paraguay on March 17, 2017.

A poem from the sky or a sign of the times to come?

During the summer, if you’re very lucky, you may notice a cloud in the sky that looks just like a rainbow like this one spotted recently in the sky over Asunción, Paraguay.

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Ultima Ora via VK.com

These so-called “fire rainbows” are actually known as circumhorizontal arcs and can occur when the sun has risen higher than 58° in the sky.

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Ultima Ora via VK.com

For those living at mid-latitudes, the best chance to see this phenomenon is in the middle of summer.

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Ultima Ora via VK.com

Ingredients: Position of the sun and cirrus clouds

The rarity of the event is highly dependent upon latitude and weather conditions. The potential for these arcs to form in Los Angeles is 5-10 times higher than in London for example.

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DX.com.py via VK.com

Aside from the position of the sun, the other ingredient to forming circumhorizontal arcs is cirrus clouds. Cirrus clouds are the thin, wispy clouds that occur at higher altitudes. Because the temperature is so low where these clouds exist, they are made of ice crystals.

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DX.com.py via VK.com

After the sun is higher than 58°, the light refracts through the plate-like crystals, which act like prisms and create the rainbow.

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Paraguay.com via VK.com

Circumhorizontal arcs aren’t the only optical illusion created by the sun and cirrus clouds; iridescent clouds, infralateral arcs, and circumzenithal arcs are just a few other ways the sun can create beautiful rainbow-colored clouds.

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via Twitter

And of course we shouldn’t forget to speak about these man-made colorful strange clouds…

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