Iridescence Clouds or Tornadoes....

[Brendon Lindsey]

So I was glancing into my weather book haha and saw a crazy looking cloud called an iridescence cloud. Then me, being curious, googled it and saw some more pictures...

Seriously, who all here has seen a cloud like this and IYO was it just as spectacular as seeing a tornado, because honestly I think if I saw a cloud like that, it would be just as awesome as a tornado and i would take probably some of the best pictures of my career. Am I over exaggerating? Are they even that cool? They look like it.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Along the top of a cell. Not a great picture but it was a large area along the edge.

 

[Stan Rose]

I see clouds like that all the time, and yes, they are Waaay cooler than tornadoes!

 

[Jody Radzik]

This cloud was over western San Miguel county, New Mexico, on March 23, 2008.

 

[D. Hayes]

I have a fairly nice photo of a iridescent cloud I took while living over in the UK. I'll post it soon as I can get my main computer back on it's feet. It wasn't a moment like a tornado but it was cool to see even though my telescope.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Saw this earlier this year. I've seen them plenty of time, but not quite as sick looking as this one. They were really close to the sun at this time, and it was a bit tough shooting them at 400mm and not blinding yourself at the same time.

Want to see cool colored clouds, do a google image search for: nacreous clouds

 

[Eric Sipes]

Around here you usually see them during cool evenings with a lot of high cirrus. I think it's caused by the sun shining through ice crystals in the clouds causing a sort of rainbow effect but, I'm not 100% sure about this. Could somebody shed a little more light on this (no pun intended) so chasers will know when to look for this pheonomena? I've honestly never seen them in a thunderstorm and, I would love to get some pics of the entire anvil lit up like this.

-Eric

 

[Jim Saueressig]

This guy has quite a collection, click the picture for his collection.

 

[D. Hayes]

Got several new photos the morning of the 24th coming home from work around 6:30am. Here it is cropped, resized, and auto levels: