Sun halo over Chiile
© Via Instagram/mekamiro
High altitude cirrus clouds sometimes contain a large number of hexagonal ice crystals, and if these are struck by sunlight at just the right angle, with the sun elevated at least 58 degrees, the sky suddenly looks like somebody waved a giant magnet in front of an old-school computer monitor.

But, yesterday was more than unusual in Antofagasta, Chile. A series of different sun halos lit up the sky over the whole day, baffling sky-watchers as if they've finally discovered the gateway to Oz.

At around midday, a double solar halo - circumhorizontal arc below the very common 22-degree halo - amazed onlookers for approximately half an hour.


Then around 3:30pm, another sun halo appeared before an incredible sundog or two suns phenomenon around 6:30pm. Chemtrailing? Approaching storm? or just weaponized weather art in the heart of Atacama desert? Will see that in the news in the next day. Meanwhile enjoy as if you weren't aware of the weather war going on.



While it may look like the pseudo-surrealist pap you'd find hanging in some naturopath dentist's office, these are real pictures and videos of a real phenomenon: a so-called circumhorizontal arc appears below the very common 22-degree halo and some other more complex halos in the sky of Antofagasta, Chile on November 13, 2017.

Here a video showing the powerful sun dog phenomenon at sunset on Nov 13th:


Now think about describing that moment to anybody who wasn't right there with you: You're either getting tossed in the loony bin or hit up for some of those excellent drugs you're apparently on. It's almost as if they've finally discovered the gateway to Oz.