World's Rarest Clouds Appear Over San Francisco Bay

'World's rarest clouds' captured in early morning skies over San Francisco Bay Area as scientists say rise in strange cloud sightings may be related to the high number of rocket launchesA local photographer saw the clouds at sunrise in Oakland Friday morning the North and South Poles on EarthWater vapor is trapped, freezes in ice crystals and forms meteoric dust Noctilescent clouds form in the mesosphere, which sits at an altitude of about 50 miles when ice clouds interact with the sun shining just below the horizon on Friday, a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA's Vandenberg Space Force Base in California that may be responsible for creating the clouds

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< p class="byline-section"> Posted: 18:10 GMT, Dec 18, 2022 | Update: Dec 18, 2022 20:36 GMT

Noctilucent clouds – the rarest clouds in the world – have appeared over the San Francisco Bay Area in the early hours of Friday morning, just days after yet another SpaceX rocket launch.

Rain Hayes, a local photographer, saw clouds sailing over Lake Merritt in Oakland two days ago around 6:30 a.m. before sharing images of the rare sighting later on social media.

"Strange bright cloud over Lake Meritt during late astronomical twilight this morning", a- she wrote, while informing the regional National Weather Bureau.

'Great shot of what appears to be a noctilucent cloud over the SF Bay Area this morning!' UCLA climatologist Daniel Swain said in response to Hayes' photo.