Millions experienced a shock in the middle of the day when a pitch-black cloud blotted out the sun and watched as their city descended into literal darkness.
İstanbul'un üzerinden 7 kilometre kalınlığında bir bulut geçti. Bu esnada 5 dakikada güneş yok oldu, gündüz geceye döndü. Bazı insanlar kıyamet yorumu yaptı. İşte o anlar... pic.twitter.com/BmJlbSMX5U
— Hava Forum (@HavaForum) April 18, 2023
As the city of Istanbul watched, a dense cloud of black poured over the city on Tuesday. Citizens reached for their phones to catalogue the mysterious event.
"A cloud seven kilometers thick passed over İstanbul. In the meantime, the sun disappeared in five minutes, and the day turned into night. Some people commented on the apocalypse," the Turkish meteorological forum Hava Forum tweeted.
While the dark cloud was passing over, a heavy rain began pouring down over the city, bringing many to wonder, whether they were experiencing a significant spiritual event.
Others, such as technology news site TechnoPixel, noted that "Cumulonimbus clouds can reach kilometers thick, and their peaks can be located at very high altitudes, such as 21 kilometers from the earth. Clouds usually require moisture, an unstable mass of air and a buoyant force."
This 'thundercloud' simply sat way, way below the usual average range for a cumulonimbus cloud and had an exceedingly dense thickness to it.
"As the cloud thickness increases, the amount of transmittance decreases, sunlight cannot pass through. Especially in clouds with a thickness of one kilometer and above, the permeability rate is extremely low," TechnoPixel shared.
Events like this always leave many people wondering, "Is there a spiritual aspect to such a strange event?"
There are several references in the Bible where God used darkness for His purpose, and where darkness over the earth is prophesied.
The book of Joel chapter 2 prophesies that in the day of the Lord there will be "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness." This even may give insight into what that day will look like when it does arrive.
God sent darkness as the ninth plague to afflict Egypt in Exodus chapter 10. The darkness was so thick that the Bible says, "They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings."
This was the final plague before the Lord sent an angel of death to take the firstborn of all of Egypt and the holiday of Passover was established.
The book of Revelation prophesies in chapter 16 there will be several meteorological and astronomical events take place. A bowl of judgement is to be poured out on the sun (v. 8) and cause mankind to be scorched with fire. Following that, a bowl of judgement will be poured out on the throne of the Beast (v. 10) and darkness will enshroud his kingdom.
Although this event clearly was not an end-times occurrence, it does give an idea of what complete darkness that blots out the sun looks like, but this darkness ended with a pleasant surprise. As the clouds and heavy rains dissipated, a beautiful rainbow shined down on the city in the wake of the uncommon event.
Sonrası gayet güzeldi ya önemli olanda o ... pic.twitter.com/h8xxNT2Hih
— Eyt Özlem (@zlem215857762) April 18, 2023
Some Twitter users posted pictures of the aftermath and the rainbow saying "It was pretty good after that." 
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
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