From heart clouds to double rainbows, observers record natural phenomena in Portugal | Blue

Someone who witnesses a rare, beautiful, or simply noteworthy meteorological phenomenon can photograph it and share the image on the Observar platform, run by the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), which allows “any citizen to report, in time almost real, the occurrence of severe meteorological phenomena that you witness”.

In recent weeks, “volunteer sky observers” have revealed solar halos, heart-shaped clouds and double rainbows in different parts of Portugal.

In addition to clouds whose shape enchants romantics, in these records we also find cumulonimbus clouds, which are dense clouds, characterized by great vertical development. “At least part of the upper region is, as a rule, smooth, fibrous or striated and almost always flat. The upper part often spreads out in the form of an anvil or plume. Beneath the cloud, which is often quite gloomy, there are often tattered low clouds, whether or not attached to it, and precipitation.”, explains the IPMA glossary. In films about natural disasters, close-ups with this type of clouds often precede the occurrence of storms with thunder, hail and tornadoes.

The images also include examples of optical phenomena, such as halos and parhelia. A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a celestial body – the Sun, in the case of the images represented here, or the Moon, for example.