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A rare cloud formation shone like a pink jellyfish over Costa Rica earlier this week wowing spectators.
Luckily, some people filmed the event and posted it on social media for all of us to see. And even though the strange cloud formation was dazzling on film, we can only image how beautiful and eerie it was in person.
Some noted that it was an “end of times” spectacle, pumping fear into those who could witness it in cities like San Jose, Parrita, Pavas, Escazu and Hatillo in Costa Rica. Even more mystifying was the fact that it was the country’s Independence Day.
Joey Petit witnessed the whole thing and told ABC News that he and his family were at a playground for an Independence Day festival when the clouds began to shine in brilliant colors.
His 11-year-old son, Ariel Joseph, “immediately grabbed the camera and started taking video and photos,” Petit said. “We were just so amazed. We had no idea what it was and we’d never seen anything like it.”
Jessie Montealegre from Escazu took the breathtaking event as a “sign of God.”
But experts say the stunning cloud formation isn’t really all that rare and what causes isn’t a ‘mystery.’ (Sorry, folks) As the Washington Post reports:
They typically form during the early stages of thunderstorm development, when a strong updraft of rising air is present in cumulus clouds. The upward motion of the building cumulus cloud causes the whole layer of air above the storm to rise. The moisture in this thin layer cools and condenses into cloud droplets, which forms the wispy, flat cloud that caps the storm.
As for the stunning rainbow-like effect, Eladio Solano, a meteorologist with Costa Rica’s National Meteorological Institute, said that the colors appears when the sun’s light is refracted by water droplets and ice crystals.
Well, whatever the science behind it, it sure is gorgeous to look at.
Agencies/Canadajournal
