Magnficient Iridescent Cloud Appears Over Indonesia and Stops Traffic
Lucky locals in Indonesia witnessed a colorful iridescent cloud this past weekend, with the footage quickly going viral.
The Weather Channel shared spectacular video from Indonesian TikTok user @sipa4502, who shared two videos that racked up a combined 57 million views at the time of writing.
@sipa5402 🥹🫧#fyp ♬ original sound – Visit
@sipa5402 #fyp ♬ suara asli – arka – arkasc28
The Weather Channel calls iridescent clouds a “rare phenomenon,” which appear when sunlight interacts with lingering raindrops in the air after rainfall. But since it’s 2026, and nobody believes anything they see online anymore, people were quick to call the video AI.
But the video appears to be genuine. While iridescent clouds are actually fairly common, extremely bright, rainbow ones like this one are very rare. According to The Online Citizen, traffic briefly stopped around the town of Jonggol where the cloud appeared.
“The phenomenon seen in the video is a common occurrence in the atmosphere and is related to atmospheric optics,” Ida Pramuwardani, Acting Director of Public Meteorology at the Indonesian climate agency BKMG, tells Detik News.
“Rainbow colors appear because sunlight interacts with water droplets in the air, both from rain residue and rain that is currently occurring on the other side of the Sentul area, as in the video,” Pramuwardani adds.
The meteorologist explains that the cloud in the video is a towering cumulus cloud that is blocking part of the rainbow, giving it a unique look.
“At the same time, there are towering cumulus clouds that can cover part of the rainbow, so that the shape looks incomplete or looks like a ‘rainbow cloud’,” she says
Pramuwardani stresses that the clouds aren’t a sign of any danger. Instead, the rainbow cloud — that some people compared to Mario Kart — means that convective clouds are forming and rainfall could be imminent.
“This phenomenon is not a direct sign of an impending storm, but rather indicates the growth of convective clouds and the possibility of local rain in the area, even though the observation point is still clear or has not experienced rain,” she explains.
