"You may want to come to the terrace". I'd been sitting on a window seat in my hotel room in Bergen, enjoying the view over the snowy rooftops, when the message came through. We were taking a quiet moment after breakfast before exploring for the day. I was intrigued and rushed outside without a jacket to see what had intrigued Vanessa so.
I entered the terrace and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Vanessa told me to turn around and so I did. And the sight before me took my breath away.
I have to admit, I genuinely thought we were seeing rare daylight aurora borealis until I realised that we were witnessing an even rarer meteorological phenomenon: nacreous clouds.
Nacreous clouds are polar stratospheric clouds which form only below -78C. According a tweet by BBC meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker, "they can be extremely high – three times higher than an airplane at cruising altitude. Nacreous clouds are in indicator of especially cold air high in the atmosphere"
As you'd expect from clouds, they were constantly on the move, changing shape and blowing apart. The photos in this post were taken just 7 minutes apart.
I'm very pleased to have seen something interesting, from a meteorological perspective. It wasn't quite the Northern Lights but it was more successful than our trip to Iceland to see the Midnight Sun and seeing only grey midnight cloud cover instead. That, of course, is a story for another day.
Wow, I thought it was polar light. First time I hear about these clouds
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I'd never heard about them until that day! Thankfully they'd been seen all over UK and Scandinavia so it didnt take me long to realise the truth.
DeleteThis came from "especially cold air, high in the atmosphere". Is this normal for Bergen or are people talking about climate change?
ReplyDeleteI think it's just that the sun has to be at just the right angle when there are very cold, dry, not-overly-windy conditions. There seems to be a flurry of sightings every five years or so
Deletegreat shots! i quite like it with the roof silhouette.
ReplyDeleteI liked the silhouettes too!!
DeleteWhat a beautiful formation - is that cloud or light?
ReplyDeleteHello! Nice to 'meet' you today, Lisl. Very good question - I think technically it is a cloud but the angle of the sun and ice particles in the air cause us to see the rainbow effect
DeleteWOW! what a special treat for you. I had never heard of such clouds before.
ReplyDeleteMe neither! We felt very lucky!
DeleteAmazing! I have never seen such phenomena. You were really lucky.
ReplyDeleteThey were magical - we felt very lucky indeed!
DeleteHow wonderful to be - in the right place, at the right time!
ReplyDeleteIt was marvellous. Such a magical and unusual morning
DeleteWow, such a rare skywatching treat! I've only seen Nacreous clouds once and was blown away by the most brilliant colours. Thanks for sharing. Aiva :) xx
ReplyDeleteAren't they spectacular? I'm glad you saw them too, Aiva
Delete