This footage of a fire rainbow in Singapore is both hypnotizing and terrifying
Staring up at the sky can be a great way to clear your mind or unearth the answer to a problem that’s been plaguing you for a while. But if we looked up and saw this fire rainbow that appeared in Singapore, we would assume something wonderful was about to happen, like a super-sized pot of gold appearing out of thin air or a Powerball lottery win.
Maybe a fire rainbow is just proof that clouds are truly amazing, and they *really* want us to notice. However, the Mirror reported that some witnesses thought the fire rainbow was a UFO, which honestly pales in comparison to our atmospheric financial fantasy, but whatevs.
Anywho, back to the sky’s stunning magic trick. Apparently, a “fire rainbow” is an extremely rare and extraordinarily beautiful phenomenon otherwise known as a “circumhorizontal arc.” It happens when light penetrates cirrus clouds at a high altitude and produces a prism of colors. According to The Daily Mail, onlookers said the fire rainbow appeared around 5 p.m. and remained visible for 15 minutes.
The Weather Channel meteorologist Ari Sarsalari weighed in on the fire rainbow appearance with this explanation:
“Any time you see something that looks rainbow-y, you’re seeing sunlight being refracted through something.” He added, “In this situation, you’re actually getting the sun refracting through ice crystals in clouds that are much higher up in the atmosphere.”
Sarsalari also compared fire rainbows to moon or sun halos, which both happen when light refracts through ice.
We find fire rainbows to be absolutely gorgeous, but after looking at this Viral Hog video, we can kind of see how people would take this as the prelude to an alien invasion.
So, it’s obviously fascinating but we’re not gonna lie: That first glimpse of the colorful halo emanating from the cloud definitely made the ol’ arm hair stand up just a teensy bit. Thank you, fire rainbow, for showing us how it feels to be low-key terrified by something so beautiful.
