Burn-off

There was a very dark dramatic pall of smoke rising over the Wither Hills around lunchtime today. I side-tracked in the car along the state highway to get a better view. By the time I got to a suitable viewpoint the smoke was dissipating somewhat. I made some inquiries of nearby farmers and was told that the fire was caused by a “controlled burn-off”. There was an extensive infestation of gorse on the property and burning it was an efficient way of clearing the land for more productive purposes.
A very big thanks to all those lovely Blip Friends who gave my image of yesterday, "Rainbow Clouds" hearts and thus sent it to the Spotlight page....where it stayed all day. I was delighted. I did some research about the phenomena displayed in the image. Some suggested the clouds were "Sun Dogs' but that did not fit the criteria. The best I could come up with was "Cloud Iridescence" or "Irisation" probably caused by the presence of tiny ice crystals or water droplets in the air causing light to be diffracted or spread out. Someone else suggested the term "Circumhorizontal Arc". Anyway I felt very privileged in being there on the spot at the right time to capture the phenomenon.