The huge, colourful band spanning almost the entire city of Taipei, the island's capital, lasted three hours longer than the previous record set in Sheffield, England, in 1994 when a rainbow lasted from 9am to 3pm.

Residents of Taipei and even neighbouring New Taipei City stopped in their tracks when the large rainbow first appeared in the morning and lasted well into the afternoon.

Pictures going viral on social media show the 30th November phenomenon from multiple angles, with netizens saying they had "never seen a rainbow so clearly" in their lives.

Incredibly, just three days earlier, climate observers at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei's Shilin District began recording data for another rainbow that lasted some six hours.  

But before they could finish compiling reports to determine whether it had actually broken the 23-year-old Sheffield record, the much longer nine-hour rainbow appeared days later.

Professor Liu Ching-hwang with the university's Department of Atmospheric Sciences said the record-breaking rainbow appeared at around 7:15 in the morning and lasted until after 4pm Taipei time.

The professor explained: "Because of the local terrain [in Shilin District] and the seasonal northeasterly winds, moisture often collects here and condenses into rain, which causes rainbows when there is sunshine."

He added: "They're actually quite common in this area, especially in this season, but we never recorded them in the past."