Many Powys residents noticed some intriguing cloud formations earlier this month, with many taking to social media to share pictures of the fascinating patterns.

The Met Office has explained why these different types of cloud formations occurred. Some locals saw thin streaks of cloud, which the Met Office identifies as cirrus fibratus.

“Thin and fibrous, cirrus fibratus clouds are often aligned with the high-altitude wind direction, making for white parallel stripes which streak across the sky,” said a Met Office spokesperson.

Cirrus is made up completely of ice crystals, which provide them with their white colour.

In other places across the county, lots of small white clouds were spotted grouped together. The Met Office said,

“These appear to be cirrocumulus. Composed almost entirely from ice crystals, the little cloudlets are regularly spaced, often arranged as ripples in the sky.

“Cirrocumulus can sometimes appear to look like the scaly skin of a fish and is referred to as a mackerel sky.

“Some of the clouds seen in Powys would be defined as the cirrocumulus stratiformis species; flat sheets or patches of cirrocumulus, with fine separation leading to a fish scale-like appearance.”

A variety of altocumulus clouds were also spotted They are mid-level layers or patches of clouds, called cloudlets and normally appear in the shape of rounded clumps, although altocumulus clouds can occur in a range of shapes.