A Rainbow Pileus Cloud over Zimbabwe

via APOD: 2014 February 19 – A Rainbow Pileus Cloud over Zimbabwe 2014 February 19 Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Lowenstein

Dear Editor,

I know that ‘Zimbabwe Situation’ does sometimes include material
submitted directly by readers so I thought you might be interested in
publishing something that will project a good image of the country.

Please check the following link:  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140219.html

It is a very rare photograph which will also be appearing on NASA’s
Earth Observatory Facebook page, Google+ and Twitter so coverage is
spreading.

However these sites cater for specialists rather than the general
public so I thought if it appears in Zimbabwe Situation, it will be
seen by many more people who will appreciate the beauty of this event
over their country.

Kind regards,

Peter Lowenstein

Yes, but how many dark clouds have a multicolored lining? Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and so together diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts.

The above image was taken just before sunset when it was noticed by chance by a photographer in Murambi East, near Odzi Valley and the Mtanda Range of Zimbabwe. Also captured were unusual cloud ripples above the pileus cloud. The formation of a rare pileus cloud capping a common cumulus cloud is an indication that the lower cloud is expanding upward and might well develop into a storm. In this case, however, only a few minutes after the colorful cloud was noticed, it disappeared.