Does anybody actually know what it it might be?
I found it via fark.com, and there is a fair bit of discussion there, but, as usual, most of it is facetious, and it is hard to tell even whether the people who seem to be making serious claims know what they are talking about. I think The Dope should be able to do better.
It looks like a crepuscular ray (or rather, a shadow) - I’ve seen pictures like that before, although with that many other clouds visible, there would normally be more rays.
Here’s an image of a somewhat similar one:
Well, that has a cloudy background, so there is something for a shadow to be cast on.
It could be the shadow of the contrail of a passing jet.
That was the best guess of a meteorologist in the link in the OP.
All of your answers may SEEM logical and consistent with what you know as reality.
But, those few of us who actually run things are aware that our background projectors for that sector of Florida went on the fritz momentarily. Do not be alarmed. Everything is back to normal (or as normal as your limited senses can register reality).
Oh, look, another episode of “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo” is on!
Another vote for contrail shadow. I might even have a similar image. I’ve seen them several times but have never gotten a good photo with my cell.
Yeah, I think it’s a contrail shadow of some kind. I’ve shadows like that many times on road trips where there’s a “big sky”.
OK, I’ve been instructed to tell you that it is, in fact, a contrail shadow.
That picture was taken about 3 miles from my house. We’ve had some pretty wild weather this summer with water spout sightings on almost a daily basis for a while there. Fortunately they rarely ever come on shore as tornados.
All hail the Hypnotoad!
Crepuscular rays are not cast on clouds - they’re beams of light (or shadow) cast on the air itself - made visible by the fact that the atmosphere itself is not completely transparent.
I am still not understanding how, if it is a shadow, it can be seen without being cast on something.
If I understand correctly, there is a contrail, and something else is casting a shadow on that contrail.
More accurately, it’s (presumably) the shadow of a contrail, being cast upon the air itself, as ManGetOut (and stop eating everything!) said.
You are not looking at the contrail shadow, your are in the contrail shadow and you are looking down through 10+ miles of dimly lit dust particles. And the few dust particles that are in that shadow are not sunlit. If you were looking through the shadow, 99% of the particles in your field of view would be lit and you wouldn’t notice anything.
It would help to know which direction the camera is facing for this picture. I thought at first we might estimate that based on the location and the coast, but it’s an island, so the coast could be any which way.
Air, filled with particles of dust, water vapour, etc, is ‘something’.
Here is a site which might help explain it. Scroll down to number 3, the edge shadow or volumetric shadow. There’s even a video of similar shadows he took in his kitchen that should be familiar to everyone. We’ve all seen them, just not in the sky.