Bizarre colorful (luminous/glowing) cloud phenomenon in the sky was observed about 30 mins before the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake took place. This was recorded in Tianshui, Gansu province ~450km northeast of epicenter, by someone using a cell phone. These clouds seemed to be glowing or somewhat luminous and seemed to resemble some characteristics of the Auroras.

You can do this too, just take a picture of the clouds and let you imagination roll.

Such clouds are called nacreous clouds and their beauty is indescribable! According to wikipedia such clouds form in the winter polar stratosphere at 50,000–80,000 ft at very low temperatures and are very rare. Because there clouds are so high they receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect it before dawn or after dusk.

I always was amazed by the clouds. Sometimes looking at them you can see something more than just drops of water in the sky. So I found pictures of strange clouds and some tornados here.