Look up! “What’s that around the sun,” you ask?

Some South Floridians have noticed and reported what appears to be a strange ring around the sun this weekend.

Apparently, that ring is actually a sun halo, and it may be more common than you might think.

It developed as sunlight passed through high, thin cirrus clouds moving into our area from the Gulf of Mexico.

These clouds are more than 20,000 feet off the ground. They are so cold that they are actually made of ice crystals.

Light passing through them is refracted, just like a prism, creating the halo.

Occasionally they can show some color. The halos seen this weekend were vivid enough for a reddish color in the inner ring.

Halos can also be found around a bright full moon if conditions are just right.