Mother Of Pearl Clouds

A babysitting day today and as I set off around 8 a.m. the sky was full of these lovely coloured clouds.

They were changing quite quickly and by the time I had found somewhere to stop and photograph them they had faded quite a lot!

These are also known as nacreous clouds and despite their beauty they have a dark side. They are associated with climate change. They are formed from supercooled water and ice particles and they provide a surface for chemical reactions with CFCs high in the stratosphere. Chlorine gas is released from the CFCs and destroys naturally occurring ozone.

Apparently quite rare and even more so as far south as England, there has been quite a lot visible over the last few days.