<\/p>\n
A mysterious ring in the sky around Durango on Sunday afternoon had some people wondering if life from another planet had finally arrived to Earth or if the sight was long-awaited evidence of Russian meddling.<\/p>\n
And given how unpredictable 2017 has been so far, it wouldn\u2019t have been that out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Aliens!!\u201d wrote Darrin Strickland on one of Durango\u2019s local Facebook pages.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia!!!\u201d Daniel Galloway added.<\/p>\n
But alas, Sunday\u2019s spectacle was a rather recurrent optical phenomenon known as a sun halo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really common, but a lot of times they aren\u2019t bright enough to see,\u201d said Andrew Lyons, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Junction who reviewed photos of the halo sent by The Durango Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the same cloud coverage over us, but we can\u2019t see anything. You guys are just hitting it at the right time and angle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sun halos occur when there\u2019s high cloud coverage \u2013 usually cirrus clouds that drift more than 20,000 feet above the ground. Those clouds contain millions of a special type of ice crystal shaped like a hexagon.<\/p>\n
When the sun hits these crystals at a 22-degree angle, a translucent ring around the sun appears, Lyons said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically is the same process that forms rainbows through water, except in this instance, it\u2019s ice crystals,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n
Folklore used to say the halos were a harbinger of storms on the way. However, science has debunked this theory.<\/p>\n
And indeed, Durango this week should have relatively clear skies with daytime temperatures in the low 60s.<\/p>\n