WEATHER: Is that a head in the clouds?
AFTER being battered by a tornado and frazzled by lightning, residents are getting used to wacky weather this summer.
AFTER being battered by a tornado and frazzled by lightning, residents are getting used to wacky weather this summer.
So could this strange image seen in the clouds over Peterborough be Mother Nature?
Or perhaps it's Zeus, the ancient Greek god of the skies and the weather?
Reader Dave Watkins spotted the weird "face" hovering 200ft above him as he relaxed in the back garden of his home in Sandford, Ravensthorpe, Peterborough.
The keen amateur photographer grabbed his camera and took this shot.
He said: "I just looked up into the sky and there it was. I'm not religious, but I immediately thought 'it's the face of God', that's how it felt.
"It was spooky, one of those times when the hair on the back of your neck stands up."
The 55-year-old grandfather, a member of the Royal Photographic Society, managed to take four frames of the cloud before it disappeared in a puff of wind.
He added: "I know it was a natural thing, but I feel very lucky to have seen it. I take thousands of photographs but I know I will never take another one like this again."
Psychologists describe the phenomenon of seeing something distinct such as a face in something vague like a cloud as "pareidolia".
When we see a cloud formation, the human brain tries to make sense of it and we see a pattern or feature we understand.
As a spokesman for the Met Office said: "Clouds of all types can take on the appearance of faces and objects, but one person can see one thing and another person could see something different."
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Weather for Peterborough
Thursday 29 July 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 16 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: West
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