While a rare sight, there may be a chance that you look up to the sky one day and notice clouds that feature the beautiful colors of a rainbow. You need the right conditions, namely a hot and humid day with the result being the incredible iridescent clouds.
A natural phenomenon that is very uncommon, iridescent clouds occur when sunlight diffracts of identically-sized water droplets present in the atmosphere, which causes the sunlight to be scattered, resulting in a variety of colors present.
Also, referred to as rainbow clouds, the likelihood of the phenomenon occurring is very low, although it is most likely to happen with cirrocumulus, lenticular, altocumulus, and cirrus clouds.
Thankfully there are enough occurrences throughout the world that many photographers have captured the gorgeous sight of a rainbow cloud. Check them out!
August Allen
