It was gorgeous and so unusual. Well, I hadn't seen anything like it before.
According to South African Weather Service meteorologist, Mksufhuwa William Msimanga, this is a very common occurrence.
“It happens when we have a high-level cirrus cloud. It’s located between 5km to 10km in the upper atmosphere,” he said.
Msimanga explains that cirrus clouds are filled with ice crystals and as the sun heats crystals inside the cloud, they move apart which creates the ring which is actually a circular rainbow.
It was really hard taking the pictures as the sun was really bright. I just pointed my cellphone in the general direction and hoped for the best.
This was the result.
This phenomenon does not last long. “It should last as long as we have the cloud, but this particular cloud is starting to move away, so it should start to dissipate within the hour. It all depends on the momentum of the cloud,” Msimanga concluded.
