By Tim Binnall
Residents of Istanbul were understandably left unsettled when a massive black cloud swept over the Turkish city and cast it into total darkness for five minutes. The weird weather event, which reportedly happened on Tuesday afternoon, was photographed and captured on video by countless astounded people in the community. Sharing one such piece of footage on social media, a Turkish meteorological group marveled that "the day turned into night" when the city was covered by a monstrous cloud measuring a staggering seven kilometers thick.
As Istanbul became enveloped in darkness, the city was also drenched with rain and the incident proved to be so unnerving that many people online mused that perhaps the apocalypse was occurring. Fortunately, those fears were short lived as the cloud passed after what one imagines felt like an interminable five minutes. Weather experts later explained that the spooky event was simply a Cumulonimbus cloud floating over the city and not a harbinger of doom. To that end, a giant rainbow appeared in the sky shortly after the storm, which likely helped to assuage the concerns of those wondering what had just happened.