A seven-year-old girl spotted a rare phenomenon in Kent's sky yesterday.

The youngster was playing in her garden, in Lenham, when she spotted an 'upside down rainbow.'

Upon seeing the 'smile in the sky' she quickly called her family to take pictures.

Mother Stephanie Oliver said: "It was very pretty and my daughter was very excited, telling us she'd read about them.

"She said it's an upside down rainbow and that they were rare.

"We grabbed a photo, it had been even brighter when she first called, and we looked it up. She was quite right."

Although it has the appearance of a rainbow this phenomenon, called a circumzenithal arc, is actually something completely different.

They are not formed by raindrops. Instead they develop when sunlight is refracted through horizontal ice crystals.

Conditions and the angle have to be just right.

Light has to enter the crystal through a flat top and exit through a side prism to cause the effect.

The Met Office says they are actually quite common but we only occasionally see them because they are blocked by clouds underneath them.

Did you take any pictures of the 'upside down rainbow?' Send them to messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk