stratospheric clouds over iceland

https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=04&month=01&year=2020

STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS OVER ICELAND: A New Year's outbreak of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) around the Arctic Circle is continuing. The latest sighting comes from Iceland:

"This morning in northern Iceland the sky went crazy!" reports photographer Madelon Dielen. "We have never seen anything like this before."

To capture the scale of the clouds, Dielen took 7 photos and stitched them into a single panorama of the horizon:

"We couldn't believe our eyes!" Dielen says.

Indeed, polar stratospheric clouds like these are almost unbelievable. Normally the stratosphere has no clouds at all. Only when the temperature drops to a staggeringly cold -85C can sparse water molecules in the stratosphere assemble themselves into icy clouds. Typically, only a small number of these clouds appear during the coldest nights of Arctic winter.

Something about the winter of 2020 is different. Some observers say the current outbreak of PSCs is a "once in a lifetime event," bringing clouds of such intensity and color that tourists mistake them for daytime auroras. Where will they appear next? Stay tuned.