Mother's day sun halo appears in Shanghai, China

© CFP
The solar halo photographed in Chongming County yesterday.

    

Moms across the city received a gift from the heavens yesterday when a beautiful pearl-colored halo around the sun greeted them on Mother's Day morning.

While some web users saw this as a celestial blessing for Shanghai moms, the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau had a more prosaic explanation.

It was a result of altostratus cloud, formed by the lifting of a large stable air mass, explained forecasters.

That causes invisible water vapor to condense into cloud, creating optical phenomena — such as the sun halo.

Around 10am, many Weibo and WeChat users posted pictures, with many seeing it as a good omen.

According to a Chinese proverb: "When there is a solar halo, it will rain; when there is a lunar halo, it will blow."

And sure enough, rain was forecast overnight.

Today should see a rainy start to the week with possible rumbles of thunder and a slight drop in temperatures, forecasters said. The mercury will range between 17 and 24 degrees Celsius.

But tomorrow will be sunny with the high likely to soar to 28 degrees, and reaching 30 degrees on a clear Wednesday. Wednesday's low is also expected to rise from 17 degrees to 19 degrees.

Thundershowers are forecast to return to the city late Thursday with the mercury dipping to 27.

Not much change in temperature is expected on Friday with showers or thundershowers still likely.

Lows on Thursday and Friday will remain at around 19 degrees.