Mysterious ‘end of times’ cloud phenomenon spotted in Costa Rica

An iridescent cloud phenomenon was witnessed in Costa Rican skies on Tuesday afternoon.

Skies Opened Like The End of Times in Escazu, Costa Rica!

Joey Petit witnessed the whole thing and told ABC News that he and his family were at a playground for an Independence Day festival when the clouds began to shine in brilliant colors. He also shot a video (see below). We were just so amazed. “We had no idea what it was and we’d never seen anything like it”.

Ariel’s photo shows the multicolored and iridescent cloud formation over San Jose.

The video, appears to be taken from the Avenida Escazu commercial centre was uploaded by Jessielou121 (Jessie Montealegre).

“It was breathtaking. It’s like a sign of God.”

But the atmospheric conditions which led to the unusual colours and formation were apparently caused by a rare weather phenomenon called “cloud iridescence”.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney told MailOnline: ‘It’s a pileus cloud and that happens when you get a large storm cloud building up. It is observed occasionally when storm clouds form.

Eladio Solano, a meteorologist at the National Meteorological Institute, explained to Teletica that iridescence occurs when sunlight refracts just right off the drops of water and ice in the clouds.

The clouds could be seen from the capital San José and west towards the Pacific Ocean.