"A Portal to the Next Dimension"

Well, it happened again. What happened again? you may be wondering. 

Why, hardcore synchronicity happened again, my friends. 

Let's back it up to last Friday and the post on the Civil War trailer:

There's also the alien contagion which Garland called "The Shimmer." It's a nebulous cloud of prismatic light, just like the ones you can easily find on any number of Cocteau Twins record covers and music videos.

 
(Just one of many examples)

And as some of you may remember, Garland filmed the Shimmer scenes in the same exact location that the Cocteau Twins' "Pearly Dewdrops' Drop" video was filmed. I have an extremely hard time chalking that up to coincidence.

With me, so far? Good.

Now, let's look at this story from the BBC, brought to my attention by Reader Heather:

Residents across the UK have been amazed by rare sights in the sky on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Looking like a "portal to the next dimension" or possibly a spaceship, the shimmering colours of nacreous cloud were spotted. One of the highest clouds in our atmosphere, they are often referred to as "mother-of-pearl," and are rarely spotted in the UK because of the exceptional conditions needed.

Nacreous cloud form in very cold conditions over polar regions and within the stratosphere, around 12-19 miles high, far above our normal clouds.

FFS: enough Secret Sun keywords there for you? Honestly.

And where exactly in the UK were these rare clouds being spotted?

Why, you knew it already:

BBC Weather Watcher SazzyJ "spotted this cloud iridescence from our garden in Edinburgh late afternoon. We'd never seen anything like it before." 

"A portal to the next dimension" said Weather Watcher SkyWatcher.

Occasionally cold polar air, locked in place by strong winds high up in the atmosphere - called the polar vortex - weakens and allows this colder air to sink south to our latitude.

Formed in air that is around -80C, tiny ice crystals refract sunlight, giving the cloud pearly colours - the reason why it is also called mother-of-pearl.

Nacreous clouds are mostly seen a couple of hours either side of sunset or sunrise and, being so high, they are still lit by sunlight which makes them appear even brighter in our evening sky.

Because of the height and temperature needed this cloud is also known as Polar Stratospheric Cloud.

So, basically the skies over Scotland (and the Midlands) turned into a giant Cocteau Twins record cover. No, seriously:

See what I mean?

There were these oddly-geometric UFO-looking clouds as well. Remember that Our Lady hails from an area some consider the UFO Capital of the World.

Speaking of portals to the next dimension, I mean.

And a follower from Ireland sent this shot of deep purple skies, probably due to the Iceland volcano we looked at the other day.

And don't forget Our Lady is associated with shimmering skies right to this very day.

So if you're working on your New Year's Resolutions, I have a good one for you to add: BELIEVE.