By Heather Mcnab From Daily Mail Australia

The Wongthaggi Rapture: Bizarre cloud formation which looks like a camouflaged spaceship

A bizzare cloud formation appeared over Victoria, ringed by a rainbow and giving the appearance of a hole in the sky

Witnesses flocked to social media to post photos and speculate as to what had caused the unusual formation

The rare cloud is known as a Fallstreak Hole and occurs when an aircraft flies through clouds and ice particles freeze in the air

A bizarre cloud over parts of Victoria caused a flurry of concern and awe on social media as witnesses labelled the formation the ‘rapture cloud’.

The rare cloud, known as a Fallstreak Hole, appeared over the Wonthaggi, in the Gippsland area of Victoria on Monday, flecked with colour and giving the appearance of a hole in the sky.

Social media users flocked to the web to speculate what the cloud was, with some claiming that it was a ‘rapture’ cloud.

On Twitter user said, ‘Rapture’s here, folks. Some weird rainbow/ cloud action going on in Wonthaggi right now’.

Another asked, ‘What’s going on over Wongthaggi?’

According to Science Magazine, the holes can be caused by a phenomena called ‘seeding’, when planes fly though clouds causing ice particles to freeze in the air as it flows around the aircraft.

Ben Stewart was with his family on Phillip Island when they spotted the unusual cloud formation in the sky.

‘We just looked up and there was this thing that looked like something out of Independence Day,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

The IT consultant from Melbourne said that they stood staring at the sky for a while, trying to figure out what it was.

‘Other people spotted it as well, and most of the theories as to what caused it had to do with an aircraft or helicopter, definitely man made,’ he said.

‘One of my friends did say in jest that it was the rapture. It definitely looked out of place in the sky.’

‘I guess now we’re all just waiting for the mothership to come.’

Mr Stewart said that he often saw unusual weather patterns as he grew up in northern Victoria, but that this was one of the more bizarre.

‘It was a perfectly sunny day, and quite warm, so it just seemed to come out of nowhere,’ he said.

Michael Efron from the Bureau of Meteorology’s duty forecaster, said that the cloud could also be called a punch hole cloud.

‘They form when the water temperature in the cloud is below freezing, but the water has not yet frozen due to a lack of ice nucleation particles,’ Mr Efron told Fairfax Media.

‘In this case, when the water does start to freeze, it falls down to the surface … so you’re left with this cloud surrounding it, this clear area.’

The flecks of colour were called iridescence, and can also be found in other natural objects such as sea shells, soap bubbles and even butterfly wings.

‘This type of [cloud] iridescence occurs with high level cloud and with diffraction, [meaning] that water droplets are gathering light,’ Mr Efron said.

There have been other recent sightings of fallstreak hole clouds, with one forming over Perth in early October.

A spokesman from the Bureau of Meteorology told Perth Now that ‘It doesn’t occur often so it’s no surprise that it’s causing quite a stir’.

In May the same type of cloud formed over Northern California, sparking debates of UFO’s and conspiracies.

‘So the @WhiteHouse wants you to believe what happened over the skies of Stockton yesterday was a “cloud formation” ? GTFOH #iKnowWhatiSaw,’ tweeted one user.

Others pointed to government controlled weather manipulation and wormholes for the cloud’s unusual appearance.

IMAGES:

The rare cloud, known as a Fallstreak Hole, appeared over the Wonthaggi, in the Gippsland area of Victoria on Monday, flecked with colour and giving the appearance of a hole in the sky

Ben Stewart was with his family on Phillip Island when they spotted the unusual cloud formation in the sky

The fallstreak hole is seen in the skies above Wonthaggi in southeastern Australia by dairy farmer Leesa Willmott, 47, on Sunday. On the right the rare cloud formation is seen with a rainbow streak running through it

For more on this story and video go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2818709/The-Wongthaggi-Rapture-Bizarre-cloud-formation-looks-like-camouflaged-spaceship.html#ixzz3II3gb3jC

Additional image: www.spaghettimodels.com