[Faline]

These colorful offshoots can often be seen during the summers of middle-latitude areas, such as most of the United States. What they actually are is a large halo of refracted light, and despite their nickname, they have nothing to do with either fire or rainbows. They only occur when the sun is at least 58 degrees above the horizon, when there are cirrus clouds in the sky that are filled with plate-shaped ice crystals. The refraction of light is always parallel to the horizon, and because the arcs are so big, only sections of them are ever commonly seen—which is why it can look like certain patches of cloud are on fire (or throwing a rave). The proper name for these things, in case you ever need to impress a scientist, is ‘circumhorizontal arc.’

[butterfly]

How are these people so lucky to see this?

[dudepefrect]

Well i'm not saying its aliens but, aliens..

[Konglomo]

Murrica!! Hell yeah..

I've never seen one...

[Arkoquisa]

I've seen this quite a few times actually. Looks AMAZING!!!

[banana dick]

I see those sometimes. so pretty!

[Cancun78]

I think I've seen this before, even have a pic. I noticed there was some strange in the sky when I took it. Was just a small piece tho, not like these photos.

[Kanda444]

i've seen these a lot up here, actually. they are beautiful!! sometimes if there are a lot of aircraft flying (like when i lived in Portland) and the sky is covered with contrails, you cant see the full spectrum of colors. it's kinda gross when that happens... cause you know there's more then just water in the clouds (probably exhaust)

[Maggots & Mayhem]

Those colors are fantastic, nice post!

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by butterfly ↗

How are these people so lucky to see this?

Timing is everything.