No need to duck and cover: Siberia gets a naturally formed mushroom cloud

An oddly shaped cloud concerned several people living in the Kemerovskaya region this past weekend. The cloud bore an eerie resemblance to the mushroom cloud that follows a nuclear explosion.

Photographs and video footage of the sky found their way to Internet social media on August 27, with some residents worrying that they were looking at the aftereffects of an atomic blast. Others speculated that the cloud could be the result of an explosion at a nearby mine.

Emergency officials, however, say they received no reports of any fire or explosion.

This isn't the first time this summer that Russians have witnessed spectacular mushroom clouds in the sky. On August 10, the people of Kamyshlov, a town outside Yekaterinburg, photographed a similar display. Happily, this cloud, too, was a natural formation.