Strange clouds, as well as mists, sand storms, and other meteorological phenomena are not uncommon on Mars.

There's a particularly annoying planet-wide dust storm that often coincides with Mars' most favorable oppositions, when it is at perihelion and earth is at aphelion, which kind of ruins it for visual astronomers.

Mars is currently about three weeks past opposition, we've just passed it on the inside track. It isn't a particularly good opposition, the planet is just past aphelion. It is now early summer in the Martian N hemisphere, The north polar cap is tilted toward earth.

On 25 Mar the planet is 0.713 AU from earth, at magnitude -0.9. It is retrograde in Leo and 98% illuminated with an equatorial diameter of 13.1 seconds of arc. Look to the South around midnight, its the bright red one.

Source: 2012 RASC Handbook