Discover Cloudspotting with Gavin Pretor-Pinney
For the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and author of The Cloudspotter's guide, the beauty of an in-between sky is the silver lining.
If you spend a few moments with your head in the clouds it will help keep your feet on the ground. That’s what we’ve always argued at the Cloud Appreciation Society, which I founded 17 years ago because I felt clouds are an under-appreciated part of nature.
We have members based in 120 countries around the world who are all united in the belief that clouds are not something to complain about – far from it – but the most evocative, dynamic and poetic aspect of nature. The clouds bring beauty to a sunrise or sunset. They are an ever-shifting backdrop to our lives, Nature’s abstract art, and yet they are so omni-present that it’s easy to forget they’re even there.
We think that if you choose to pay more attention to the sky at moments throughout the day it will have a beneficial effect on your wellbeing. To look up is to lift your perspective from the concerns of terra firma. A great way to start becoming a cloudspotter is to learn the names of a few of the clouds, so let me introduce you to five of my favourites to get you started.
Cumulus
Close your eyes, think of a cloud and it’s probably a Cumulus that comes to mind. This is the fair-weather cloud that forms on a sunny day, developing on the top of invisible thermals that rise off the sun-warmed ground.
Named from the Latin for a ‘stack’ or ‘heap’, Cumulus clouds are low, solid-looking clumps with flattish bases and heaped, cauliflower-like tops. Being low clouds, they consist of tiny water droplets rather than the ice crystals of higher formations. The crisp edges of Cumulus make them the best clouds for finding shapes in. They are the sky’s invitation to daydream.
Lenticularis
The lenticularis is a particularly striking cloud. With smooth edges and a disc-like shape, it can look just like a flying saucer. Named after the Latin for a ‘lentil’ – presumably, because no one knew the Latin for ‘UFO’ – their rounded forms can appear downwind of raised ground like hills or mountains.
As wind rises to pass over the terrain it can develop into an invisible wavelike flow, rising and dipping downwind of the peaks. The discs of lenticularis form at the wave crests where the air is coolest, hovering silently in place – here to remind us that clouds are the vehicles of imagination.
Fluctus
Fluctus is a rare and fleeting cloud feature that looks like a succession of breaking waves. It is also known as the ‘Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud’, after two nineteenth-century physicists who studied turbulence, which is what give rise to this formation of cloudy vortices.
You can think of our atmosphere as an ocean of air that can flow in waves much like those of the Atlantic or Pacific. These waves of air are invisible unless they are revealed by clouds like the rare fluctus. It lasts no more than a few minutes before breaking up, so if you ever lucky enough to see one enjoy it and then let it go.
Cirrus
The highest of the common clouds, Cirrus is also the most delicate looking. It consists of ice crystals tumbling from the upper reaches of the troposphere, the part of our atmosphere where weather happens. These appear as translucent streaks, like strands of long hair flowing underwater. As the ice crystals fall through differing winds, these celestial locks drift this way and that, appearing to thicken here and thin out there.
Cirrus are the fastest moving of the ten main cloud types, because the winds are so strong up there at the cruising altitude of aircraft, but from all the way down here they appear to move gracefully. Tuning in to the clouds, therefore, is all about slowing down.
Cumulonimbus
This is the mighty storm cloud, the tallest of the ten main types. It is the Queen of Clouds and can produce thunder and lightning as well as hail. Its showers are localised, sudden and heavy. Seen from a distance, it spreads out at the top in an enormous fluffy canopy.
Cumulonimbus was placed ninth in the list when the main classifications of clouds were officially defined in the International Cloud Atlas of 1896. To be on the tallest cloud, the Cumulonimbus, was therefore to be on the ninth one, and this is where we get the happy phrase ‘on cloud nine’.
Find out more about the Cloud Appreciation Society on its website, Instagram and Facebook.
This month, we’ve been inspired by the cloudy patterns of the Cornish sky and land, with billowing mumuration prints and rippled knits.
