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A video capturing a stunning cloud formation that looks like “the stairway to heaven” has captivated users on TikTok.
The clip posted by @verivanessa shows a large cloud at sunrise appearing to sit just above the horizon, with a long, dark rectangular beam stretching across an orange-pink sky.
A note overlaid on the video says, “Never in my life have I seen a cloud so big it blocks the sunrise all the way across the sky.” The clip has amassed 4 million views since it was first shared on July 11.
Matthew Cappucci, a senior meteorologist at the MyRadar weather app, told Newsweek that the dark rectangle shown in the video isn’t a cloud but rather a shadow.
“At the beginning of the video, you can see a puffy cloud. These are cumulus clouds. They resemble cotton balls and form when it’s warm and humid,” he said.
Cappucci went on: “Because the sun is near the horizon—it’s sunset—it’s beneath the cloud. That means the cloud casts a long shadow upwards.”
AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell told Newsweek that “the shadow can happen near or just after sunset when developing storms or showers have cumulus congestus clouds that poke up much higher than other clouds in the area, as one does in this example.”
Cumulous clouds are a type of low-level clouds that “have flat bottoms and rounded tops and grow vertically,” says the National Weather Service (NWS).
A cumulus cloud that shows “significant vertical development” but has yet to form a thunderstorm is known as cumulus congestus (or towering cumulus), the NWS says.
When there is sufficient atmospheric instability, moisture and lift, “strong updrafts can develop in the cumulus cloud leading to a mature, deep cumulonimbus cloud,” as when a thunderstorm produces heavy rain, the NWS explains.
The cloud in the TikTok clip appears to have been captured in the tropics, “so it’s warmer and more humid and the cloud can grow taller,” said Cappucci. He added that the cloud “grows so tall, but stays so narrow, that it blocks light from the setting sun and casts a shadow across the sky.”
Cappucci also said the dark band seen in the clip is formed “because there are very thin clouds in the upper atmosphere made of ice.”
“The shadow from the puffy cloud lands on the wispy clouds, and we see a dark band. Outside of that shadow, the setting sun illuminates the wispy cloud with peachy amber hues,” he said.
Ferrell said that such clouds are “easiest to see in an area with no trees, such as a beach.”
They’re also known as “anti-crepuscular rays if the shadow reaches a point 180 degrees opposite the sun, as this one does,” she added.
As unusual as the clouds may seem, Cappucci said they are “not rare at all.”
“In fact, these so-called crepuscular rays happen a lot. They just rarely look as perfect as this example,” he said.
TikTok users were stunned by the striking cloud scene in the post.
REMINGT0NXD simply said, “Amazing,” and user4413680961062 wrote, “It’s the stairway to heaven.”
User @fishpond9000 said, “It just kept going! I wasn’t expecting that.”
Genesis_Alexandria wrote, “That’s so beautiful,” and AKfromNorth agreed, calling the sight “beautiful beyond words.”
Tamerah said, “This is the type of thing you won’t see paintings of or described in a book [because] real nature is so unbelievably beautiful.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. The video has not been independently verified.
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