Cloud formations look like hand and legs of God

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Reaching from the heavens like a giant hand and bathed in the golden glow of sunset, it was a sight to send the imaginations of cloud lovers soaring.

The spectacular altocumulus, a form of cloud more typically seen in rounded clumps, was photographed by the Manchester Astronomical Society and posted online by the Met Office.

'The weather saying "Hello" for Cloud Week,' the caption read. Speaking about altocumulus clouds Emma Salter, meteorologist at the Met Office, said: 'It's a harmless, fair-weather cloud that's often associated with beautiful sunsets.

Celestial body? A spectacular altocumulus in the shape of a hand (albeit with six fingers) was photographed by the Manchester Astronomical Society and posted online by the Met Office

Celestial body? A spectacular altocumulus in the shape of a hand (albeit with six fingers) was photographed by the Manchester Astronomical Society and posted online by the Met Office

'That's why this one's got the lovely orangey-yellow glow. It can take all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes.

'They have just enough of an effect from the terrain on the ground to form into interesting shapes.'

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They are also a lenticular cloud, according to the Cloud Association Society, which is a lens or spaceship-shaped cloud formed by eddies of wind near mountains or weather fronts.

And as if a heavenly hand wasn't enough, the same kind of cloud was also pictured taking the shape of a pair of giant legs 'walking' over Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Give us this day our daily tread: The same kind of cloud was also pictured taking the shape of a pair of giant legs 'walking' over Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Give us this day our daily tread: The same kind of cloud was also pictured taking the shape of a pair of giant legs 'walking' over Harrogate, North Yorkshire

The sightings came as World Meteorological Day was marked yesterday with the listing of 11 new varieties of clouds in the international Cloud Atlas. 

The Met Office and World Meteorological Organization said it made the decision to add the likes of volutus - a 'long, typically low, horizontal, detached, tube-shaped cloud mass' - after exhaustive research.

There are now 15 official cloud species making Wednesday's move the first significant change to cloud classification since the Seventies.

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