Is it the beard of a god? Is it fire in the sky? Well, read on...

THIS photograph sent in by a reader shows a very unusual cluster of clouds spotted above Leicester.

The image was captured on his mobile phone by a man visiting relatives in Humberstone on Wednesday evening.

While it might look like the beard of a celestial being, or a fire lit by the gods, the explanation of what caused the phenomenon is a little more technical.

If you look closely at the image, a rainbow can even been seen on the far left of the peculiar cloud cluster.

The reader who took the photograph, but did not want to be named, said: “I took it from Wicklow Drive at about 5.30pm. I was facing towards the city centre and it was cold but sunny.

“I took the photograph as I was intrigued. I thought it was really unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it before but it was pretty impressive.”

The Mercury contacted Mountsorrel weatherman Phil Morrish to see if he could shed any light on the matter.

“They look like mares tail clouds, which are a type of cirrus cloud that are at an altitude of between 18,000 and 30,000 feet up in the sky,” he said.

“They contain a large amount of ice particles and these look like they are being refracted by the setting sun, hence the rainbow colours on the left hand side of the cloud.

“These look particularly beautiful as they stand out in the clear sky above them. I think it’s a very good picture.

“They are fairly common, to be honest, but the refraction of the setting sun really highlights them in this shot.”