A rare glimpse of Cloud Iridescence today! 🌈 This happens when sunlight scatters through tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere. It looks like a painting come to life! 🎨 Who knew the atmosphere could do this? #ScienceIsCool #Meteorology #RareSight" | Ethereal Earth

Great example of cloud iridescence today near Daytona Beach. Rising air in a developing thunderstorm can often spread tiny water droplets or ice crystals at the top of the cloud. The thin layer of water/ice can diffract light from the sun causing a rainbow effect. 📷 Victoria Kinder | FOX 13's Paul Dellegatto

At first it looked like a normal cloud, then the colors started shifting. ☁️🌈 People started yelling. Cars pulled over. No one knew what to do except stare. This rare display is cloud iridescence—sunlight diffracting through tiny, uniformly sized droplets or ice crystals, splitting light into shimmering rainbow hues. It’s fleeting, unpredictable, and easy to miss, which is why seeing it glow this vividly felt shocking—especially in a place where it’s almost never noticed. For a few minutes, the