STRIKING cloud formations this morning in Herefordshire had people peering to the heavens.

A beautiful natural phenomenon called a mackerel sky delighted members of the Hereford Times Camera Club.

The effect is caused by cirrocumulus clouds, which are made up of lots of small white clouds called cloudlets, usually grouped together at high levels.

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According to the Met Office, the cloudlets are composed almost entirely from ice crystals and are often arranged as ripples in the sky.

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