Watch: Rare phenomenon of 'rainbow cloud' appears above a Brazilian tourist hotspot

Among the spate of UFOs gracing the sky and bizarre alien spotting popping up almost everywhere, strange sightings are a common thing now. But all the way in Ribeirao Claro, Brazil, something even stranger showed up – the viral video of which has been stunning people worldwide.

A phenomenon called iridescence happened, causing a breathtaking rainbow cloud to appear in the sky. It was recorded last Sunday by a salesman called André Luiz Nassif at Fazenda São João, a tourist spot in Riberao Clara, near Parana. Nassif works there over the weekends.

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Captured in the footage, cloud iridescence occurs when many clouds are next to each other and also happen to be very thin and made of a similar type of droplets. Its name is iridescence or irisation, comes from the word 'Iris', the Greek personification of the rainbow.

This particular incident remained in the sky for a good half an hour. Nassif – who was absolutely stunned by the phenomenon, told UOL that he had headed to Gavião Hill, to take a look at the landscape – a thing that a lot of tourists in the area, do regularly. He told the outlet that he noticed the cloud wasn't moving so he decided to take a video of the extremely rare feat.

Iridescence is reportedly most often seen close to the sun, especially happening when a cloud is forming. The cloud – which is usually halo-shaped – appears like a rainbow, even engulfs the moon or the sun, while its colors change as the cloud evolves.

As SOTT – the Signs Of The Times reported, "The best way to see an iridescent cloud is to place the sun itself behind some foreground object, a building or mountain, for example. Other aids are dark glasses, or observing the sky reflected in a convex mirror or in a pool of water."

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Earlier this week, something similar was spotted at Darwin, Australia too. The phenomenon there was slightly different though – being one that occurs when ice crystals refract the sun's rays. The locals living in that area posted images of the sky on various social media platforms.

Some described it as an 'ice prism' and some called it a 'cloud bow' because of the multi-coloured lining looking like a rainbow.