Images of 'Hand of God' cloud go viral

It was sighted on the northern coast of the Portuguese island at sunrise, with many witnesses referring to the cloud as 'The Hand of God'. 

The Weather Channel has explained this phenomenon as 'light scattering' whereby light from the sun passes through a great distance across earth’s atmosphere  where the light is scattered. 

This results in a range of colours being visible. 

The shape of the cloud is said to be caused by the circular movement of the wind. 

This comes as a shelf cloud formation was spotted in Australia last year while Capetonians took to social media to share images of ‘UFO’ clouds. 

See the images shared on social media below.