Serious Cirrus

With very little cloud cover in other parts of the sky, this line of cirrus (fibratus) stood out spectacularly in the afternoon skies of Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, November 5, 2016. The panoramic image above, captured at 4:38 pm CDT, looks west over Bowman Woods Park.

Similar capture at 4:41 pm.

Closer shot of the soaring cirrus fibratus tendrils at 4:41 pm, with a forming circumzenithal arc (center).

The circumzenithal arc has now become more pronounced at 4:45 pm. These parhelia phenomena are created by sunlight refracted through a 22-degree angle by horizontally oriented hexagonal ice-crystal plates. The circumzenithal arc is one of the most colorful of the ice crystal phenomena and is always seen high in the sky when the sun is within 18-26 degrees of the horizon. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.