UPDATE: These definitely are nacreous clouds, so-called because they look like nacre (mother-of-pearl). Lots of people posting photos all over twitter right now.
Just after the sun set over our village north of Cambridge, England, a whisp of white cloud caught my eye as I was staring out of my office window. Next to it there was a patch of rainbow-like fringes. Needless, to say I grabbed a camera and dangled myself out of the window to get a shot. Straggly shoots from the beech tree in our garden caught the attention of the camera’s autofocus, so it’s not a pin sharp shot of this meteorological phenomenon.
At first, I assumed it was an actual rainbow being formed by the light from the already set sun coming from that white whisp, but my buddy James over on Facebook mentioned that nacreous clouds have been spotted over Dublin today. Now, Dublin is quite some distance from here, but given that nacreous clouds are usually only seen at the poles, this could be them…if this meteorological phenomenon has somehow headed south.