sun. [ 32 ] He suggested the cause may have been a sundog . Sometimes referred to as a parhelion or "mock sun", a sundog is a relatively common atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with the reflection / refraction of sunlight by the numerous small ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds or cirrostratus clouds. Paul Simons, in an article entitled "Weather Secrets of Miracle at Fátima", stated that he believes that it is possible that some of the optical effects at Fátima may have been caused by a cloud of dust from the Sahara . [ 33 ] Kevin McClure claims that the crowd at Cova da Iria may have been expecting to see signs in the sun, since similar phenomena had been reported in the weeks leading up to the miracle. On this basis, he believes that the crowd saw what it wanted to see . However, none of the previous phenomena had to do with the sun; the focus, for the most part, was on the little tree where the lady was said to appear. Kevin McClure stated that he had never seen such a collection of contradictory accounts of a case in any of the research that he had done in the previous ten years, although he has not explicitly stated what these contradictions were. [ 34 ] Leo Madigan believes that the various witness reports of a miracle were accurate. However, he alleges inconsistency in the accounts of witnesses, and he suggests that astonishment, fear, exaltation,